It's not often that Chicagoans shiver through a December afternoon with temperatures in
the single digits, but that's what happened Monday. The afternoon temperature struggled
to reach 4 degrees on the city's official thermometer at O'Hare International Airport.
That was the coldest December day since 1989, when the high was just 3 degrees on Dec. 22.
Since records began here in 1870, only 19 December days out of a possible 4,300 have
logged afternoon readings of 4 degrees or lower. Monday was the 20th. The chill eases today,
but the price to be paid is yet more snow in a snowy December that has already seen
three times the normal month-to-date snowfall of 5.7 inches.
CHICAGOANS SHIVER IN THE ICE BOX FOR 29 CONSECUTIVE HOURS
Beginning at 5 a.m. Sunday, and continuing through 10 a.m. Monday morning, the city
was in the grip of a brutal stretch of sub-zero temps. Windchills bottomed out at 33
degrees below zero at 10 a.m. Sunday.
CLOSING IN ON THE WETTEST YEAR
As of Monday, 2008's year-to-date precipitation of 48.56 inches is just 0.79 inches shy
of the 49.35-inch record set in 1983.
--By Richard Koeneman, WGN Weather Center Meteorologist
