City to get brief break in 15th coldest winter

It won't last long -- but a brief break in Chicago's subfreezing temperatures predicted
Thursday may well produce Chicago's mildest reading in more than three weeks. Our
forecast of 38 degrees Thursday would be January's mildest to date. Up to now, the highest
monthly reading has been 37 degrees on Jan. 4.
The 7-inch snow cover at Midway and 8 at O'Hare -- always a factor forecasters take
seriously when predicting "warm ups" this time of year -- will take a toll on the mild air
coming this way. The incoming air mass could produce 50+-degree highs in a non-snow
Winter 2008-09 is now the coldest in 8 years and is nearly 8 degrees colder than last
year. January's chill has been even more impressive, lagging the same period a year ago by
12 degrees and coming in as the coldest in a decade. The winter season ranks 15th
coldest in 139 years and has forced Chicagoans to increase home heating an estimated 21 percent
over last winter.
Cold air resurges this weekend, and a storm system sweeping toward the heartland early
next week could be a snow producer and will have to be monitored.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune