The coldest temperatures in nearly seven months will have Chicagoans shivering as
Tuesday gets under way. The mercury dropped into the 20s at O'Hare and over many
areas away from Lake Michigan overnight. It's the first time since the 28-degree
minimum on April 2 that the city's official low temperature dipped below 30 degrees.
The chill, which prompted frost and freeze advisories across sections of 17 states
overnight, is part of a massive early season cold air incursion that sent temperatures
plummeting into the 30s south to north Florida and the Gulf Coast.
Lake-effect rain and snow showers have targeted northwest Indiana and lower
Michigan. Snow covered the ground in the northern Midwest, with accumulations of 3
inches at Eagle River, Wis, and 2.2 inches at Marquette, Mich.
2008 GROWING SEASON ENDS 3 DAYS SHORTER THAN NORMAL
With sub-freezing temps overnight, the 2008 growing season has come to an end. The
growing season is the period between the last frost of spring and the first frost of fall.
Normally 183 days in length, this year it was 180 days.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
