Warm surge set record highs on way to city

Friday's 41 degrees marked the first time in 2009 that winter-weary Chicagoans have
been treated to an official reading above 40. After the battering Chicagoans have endured
through a parade of arctic air masses responsible for the 9th coldest and 6th snowiest
winter to date of the past 138 years, a day above freezing has become a cause for
celebration. Temperatures have risen slowly overnight and soar 11 degrees higher than Friday this
afternoon, reaching 52 degrees. The reading comes almost six weeks since city was last
treated to a 50-plus-degree high. Melting on Friday reduced Chicago's snowpack 1 inch, to a
depth of just 4 inches, and will end up completely obliterating the 33-day-old snowpack
in coming days. The incoming warmth has origins in the Plains where record-breaking
June-level 80s occurred in Kansas. Garden City's 81 degrees not only set a record, it blasted
past the previous record of 66 set in 1984 by 15 degrees.
WINTRY PATTERN TO RETURN
An often stormy, colder than normal weather regime takes hold after Wednesday and
dominates the remainder of the next two weeks. Typically, 38 percent of Chicago's snow falls
beyond this date.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune