Weekend warms a bit as a cold January ends

Chicago's coldest January in 24 years ends at midnight Saturday. With its passing,
two-thirds of the 2008-09 meteorological winter season is behind us. Its abnormally cold
temperatures have been compared for weeks to those of winter 2000-01. But by late Friday,
Chicago's average temperature since Dec. 1 slipped to 19.3 degrees. It's a decline which now
makes this winter the coldest of the past quarter century -- since 1983-84.
Friday's high struggled to 14 degrees -- one of this winter's seven coldest. The
reading was 17 degrees below normal. Clear skies and exceptionally dry air Friday sent west
suburban temperatures plummeting below zero. But this morning's warm frontal passage is to
boost highs to 31 degrees Saturday afternoon and to 35 degrees Sunday -- the mildest in 28
days.
TAMPA'S SUNDAY GAME-TIME TEMPERATURES NOT SO SUPER
Just three days ago readings peaked in the lower 80s, but in the wake of a cold front
that brought 2 inches of rain Friday night, the area's heaviest since October, Tampa's
temperatures have crashed. Readings will hover around 60 degrees at Sunday's kickoff and fall
into the 50s during the game.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune