Chicago temperatures head back into the 70s Saturday afternoon for only
the third time this year -- and over a wider area than on Friday. The cool
easterly lake breezes predicted to develop in the afternoon are likely
to be the weakest in days, limiting the inland penetration of
lake-cooled air to within a mile or two of the shoreline. While readings
surge back to the mid-70s observed Friday at west suburban Oswego (76
degrees), Elgin (75), Geneva (75) and Darien (74), immediate lakeshore
area highs will hold to the low and mid-60s from Grant Park north to
Waukegan and Kenosha.
Highs on Friday reached 70 degrees at O'Hare and Midway Airports while
low 50s occurred from Hyde Park to the North Shore. The 74-degree high
predicted at O'Hare on Saturday would equal 2009's highest reading
recorded a month ago on St. Patrick's Day -- but changes loom. A cold
front passes Saturday night as an approaching storm draws cooler air
into its circulation. That storm is to lift from Texas into central
Illinois between midday Saturday and Sunday. Initially, light
post-frontal winds Sunday morning are to strengthen as air rushes into
the intensifying system. This should send Chicago-area temperatures
plummeting into the 40s as showers build into steadier rainfall by
Sunday afternoon.
Thundery, wind-driven Colorado snows reach 30-plus inches; Texas hit with
deluge!
Thunder-embedded snow whipped by 63 m.p.h. wind gusts at Denver
International Airport fell with such intensity across Colorado's
foothills and mountains Friday that 4.5 inches came down in a single
hour near Aspen -- as heavy as any ever observed here in Chicago. By late
evening, 34.5 inches had been measured at Pinecliffe, Colo., and to the
north, Cheyenne, Wyo., had 21 inches down.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
