WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.

Chilliest spell in 5 months hangs around

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The chilliest spell of weather here in over five months moves into a 9th consecutive day Tuesday---but under cloudier skies than in recent days. Rainfall with the first of this week's two wet weather systems is predicted to begin from the day's rapidly lowering and thickening overcast by mid-morning and continues in waves through much of the afternoon. A suite of the 11 most recent computer projections places the day's potential rainfall from 0.10 inches to as much as 0.85---an amount which comes on top of the 1.22 inches recorded here in the past 8 days---a period which has averaged nearly 5 degrees below normal. Estimates based on temperatures since October's open suggest the cool spell has led to home furnace use nearly 60 percent more than the most recent 30 year average. 

Gusty west winds, likely to top 30 m.p.h. at times Tuesday night, deliver a reinforcing shot of chilly air. But, the far more significant cold surge---potentially the coolest in more than 5 months and likely to limit high temperatures to the 40s for the first time since last April---looms this weekend.
 
 
Wet storm system later this week could produce up to 3 times Tuesday's rainfall
 

A frontal wave expected to sweep the area as the cold air approaches is likely to produce a far wetter interlude than Tuesday's---doubling or tripling the amount of rain to fall today.