Friday’s 91° high tied the year’s warmest reading and marked only the third time in the past 38 years a June 15 has been as warm or warmer. With 90s predicted over the next three days, this weekend is to be Chicago’s warmest since late July. What’s more, the string of four 90s arrives more than a month earlier than a year ago.
Lake Michigan reached its warmest temperature of the year Friday. While Chicago’s shoreline reading jumped to 72° near the James Jardine Water Purification Plant next to Navy Pier, the satellite-sensed average water temperature across the lake’s entire 22,300-square-mile surface surged to 64.9°, a reading nearly 30 degrees above the lake’s 35° low point on March 22.
Warming lake waters have rendered lake breezes far weaker than a few months ago. Lake breezes Friday only lowered shoreline highs to the mid 80s—well above the mid-40° air temperatures which occurred with northeast winds back in April.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
