The unrelenting hot air which has seared the southwestern half of the country while eluding Chicago the better part of this summer appears likely to make a move on the Midwest this weekend. It's part of a massive pattern change which could deliver long absent summer heat to the Chicago area. The onset of the heat is still 4 to 5 days away, though Tuesday's predicted 88-degree high offers a modest taste of what may be to come. It would qualify as the area's highest readings in five weeks.
A comfortable interlude, including winds off the lake, dominates Wednesday and Thursday before the first phase of the weekend warm-up ignites possible Friday thunderstorms. The key to just how hot temperatures end up here may well turn on thunderstorm clusters likely to develop at the northern periphery of any expanding dome of hot air. Cool thunderstorm outflows, critically important because of the forecast challenge they represent and their ability to stem the flow of hot air into an area, are currently predicted to stay north of Chicago Saturday. If true, the stage appears set for what could become the first Chicago weekend in nearly years to produce a set of 90-degree highs. Our currently predicted high of 96-degrees Saturday is a reading which would rank among the hottest since 2006.
44 of the past 50 years have seen more than this year's three 90s
Chicago's paltry three days at or above 90-degrees this late in the season is rare. Only two of the past 50 years at O'Hare have had fewer 90s by now--while 44 years in the past half century have recorded more.
A comfortable interlude, including winds off the lake, dominates Wednesday and Thursday before the first phase of the weekend warm-up ignites possible Friday thunderstorms. The key to just how hot temperatures end up here may well turn on thunderstorm clusters likely to develop at the northern periphery of any expanding dome of hot air. Cool thunderstorm outflows, critically important because of the forecast challenge they represent and their ability to stem the flow of hot air into an area, are currently predicted to stay north of Chicago Saturday. If true, the stage appears set for what could become the first Chicago weekend in nearly years to produce a set of 90-degree highs. Our currently predicted high of 96-degrees Saturday is a reading which would rank among the hottest since 2006.
44 of the past 50 years have seen more than this year's three 90s
Chicago's paltry three days at or above 90-degrees this late in the season is rare. Only two of the past 50 years at O'Hare have had fewer 90s by now--while 44 years in the past half century have recorded more.
