Not since 1983 has a sub-50° temperature arrived so late in the autumn season here. Tuesday’s 45° high, a reading more common in late November rather than early in the month, is the Chicago area’s chilliest in the nearly 7 months since April 12. It was this autumn’s first daytime temperature which failed to reach 50°—a point that the day’s 40 m.p.h. wind gusts drove home.
The Upper Midwest bore the brunt of Tuesday’s truly wintry weather. Howling winds on Lake Superior smashed 15+ ft. waves into the Upper Michigan shoreline at Stannard Rock, to the west of Marquette. There, winds gusted to 64 m.p.h. The gales also delivered the region’s first major snowfall, deepest at higher elevations across the U.P. More than a foot of snow accumulated at Champion, Mich.
By contrast, Phoenix’s record high of 94° Tuesday was its hottest ever so late in the season.
--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.
