It isn't easy keeping daytime temperatures as cool as they have been in
recent days. Monday's 40-degree peak reading was a whopping 24 degrees
colder than the 64-degree high on the same date a year ago and 14
degrees below the April 6 norm. It's just the latest afternoon
temperature this month to underwhelm area residents. The warmest
temperature that the opening week of April has managed has been 53
degrees. Only eight April 1-7 periods since 1928 at Midway Airport have
produced such limited daytime warmth. The chill is especially impressive
because the sunshine that bathes Chicago this time of year is three
times stronger than the sunlight of December.
Snow that fell heaviest across Chicago's west and south suburbs melted
quickly Monday as sunshine emerged from behind the clouds. But
lake-effect clouds were reassembling late Monday and were expected to
produce snow showers predicted to swipe Illinois' Lake Michigan
shoreline but directly hit sections of the Indiana and Michigan
snowbelt. A slow eastward shift of these clouds is predicted to take
the snow out of northwest Indiana as Tuesday proceeds.
Persistent chill could break -- at least temporarily -- next week
Three wet-weather systems may impact Chicago into early next week, with
the next one due to arrive with gusty winds Friday. But a number of cold
weather indexes may be the first signs of warmer temperatures in the
longer range.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
