Chicago's first four-day string in 2009 with temperatures 70 degrees or higher arrived right on schedule--but came to an unceremonious end amid driving rains late Monday. Weather records show the average date of Chicago's first four consecutive days with readings of 70 or higher has come around April 29 in more than eight decades of weather records at Midway Airport. The warm-up has increased Lake Michigan surface water temperatures more 5 degrees in the past week.
By late Monday, downpours had pushed Midway's spring rain tally (since March 1) to 11.37 inches, making it the wettest meteorological spring on record to date in 81 years of weather observations at the South Side site. The total is nearly a half a foot (5.53 inches) higher than the long term average for the period (5.84 inches). With many rivers near bankful, Monday's cloudburst was the last thing the area needed. Preliminary Monday rainfall totals included 1.38 inches at Tinley Park and 1.29 at Frankfort—and the rain was still falling.
Temperatures have crashed overnight. Another pneumonia front has swept across the area and Chicagoans awaken to full fetch northeast winds in its wake.
Illinois, Indiana farmers rained out of their fields
It's planting season on Midwest farms. And while the process has proceeded expeditiously in Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says Illinois farmers have only been able to plant 4 percent of the state's corn. That compares to a five-year average of 43 percent. Only 2 percent of Indiana's corn is in the ground versus an average of 25 percent.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
