There hasn't been a chill of Friday morning's intensity in the more than 8 months since
early March. Morning commuters are to be greeted by thermometer readings in the
teens with wind chills ranging from the single digits to the low teens.
The week's second blast of arctic air is to reach north Florida and the Gulf Coast Friday
night -- causing the area to be placed under hard freeze warnings.
The unseasonably cold air in Chicago on Friday -- including the predicted high of 30
-- was in northern Minnesota and southern Ontario on Thursday. Highs there were
limited to the teens. Only the sunshine-absorbing bare ground this air mass is moving
over as it arrives in the Chicago area will prevent highs from being that cool here. Even
so, Friday afternoon temperatures will remain at late-December and early-January
levels.
Lake snows wind down in the Indiana/ Michigan snowbelt. Up to 6 new inches was
reported in sections of western Michigan on Thursday.
BY SATURDAY, MORE SUB-40-DEGREE HIGHS THAN ANY NOVEMBER IN 11
YEARS
Ten November days will have failed to reach 40-degrees by Saturday's close.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
