Never a dull moment! The entire area north of I-80 is under an Ice Storm Warning from 6:00pm tonight through 6:00am tomorrow. This does not look good – a significant coating of ice (a tenth up to maybe a half inch) is going to fall this evening as freezing rain develops through the early hours of Wednesday. Thankfully temps will rebound well into the 30s tomorrow, but ice accumulations tonight could be a problem. After ~6-8pm expect very difficult and dangerous driving conditions; slippery sidewalks; airport delays; and significant power outages. Winds should be moderate, but this is enough ice to bring down power lines without any wind. The Loop and southern suburbs could escape the worst of it, but western suburbs, the northern half of the city, and the northern suburbs are in the bull’s-eye for now.
Also, see below for a recap of our incredible cold weather last week.
Notable data and new records:
- The state of Illinois recorded a new all-time (any day, ever) record low of -38 degrees F on 31 January 2019 at Mt. Carroll (near Galena). It’s still “under review” but it looks legit – if verified it would shatter the previous record of -36F at Congerville in 1999.
- Rockford set a new all-time (any day, ever) record low of -33F on the same day, shattering the previous record of -27F. Rockford also recorded its coldest-ever day based on average temps of -13F/-25F on the 30th.
- Moline also set a new all-time record of -31F (as did Cedar Rapid, IA at -30F).
- Chicago shattered several daily records and just missed several amazing all-time records.
- Wednesday, January 30th was the second-coldest day ever recorded in Chicago. The low was -23F at ORD (and -22F at MDW), while the official high occurred right at midnight with a temp of -10F. Within minutes the temp fell to -11F, and by approximately 12:45 AM the temp was -12F – had that temp occurred just one hour earlier, before midnight, we would have set a new all-time (any day, ever) record-low max temp. The official high/low of -10F/-23F puts the average at -16.5F, just missing the all-time record of -18F on 24 Dec. 1983.
- The -23F low was the fifth-lowest temp ever recorded in Chicago.
- The noon temp of -18F was the second-coldest ever recorded.
- Thursday, January 31st had a chance to tie or set the all-time record in Chicago (it did elsewhere; see above) but we had to “settle” for -21F.
- The back-to-back days with lows below -20F were the first in almost 40 years.
- In almost 150 years of Chicago weather records, temperatures colder than -20F had happened just 11 times (0.02% of all days) until we just added two more on consecutive days.
- Chicago’s recent sub-zero streak ended after 52 hours, placing it 4th on the all-time list. The record is 98 hours in Dec. 1983. Interestingly, all off the top four have been somewhat recent: 1983, 1996, 1982, 2019. All of the top 10 have occurred since 1977.
- Chicago recorded its coldest-ever final week of January based average high/low temps, shattering the previous record set in 1936.
- Remember the beginning of January? Zero snow and mild weather? I distinctly remember sitting outside at the park for 2+ hours on Saturday, January 5th as full sun and temps in the 50s made for a very nice day. The first 10 days of January averaged +8.7F versus normal, the middle 11 days were right on normal…and the last 10 days averaged -18.1F versus normal.
- Chicago jumped 72 degrees between the low on Thursday morning to the high on Monday afternoon. That is a new all-time record 5-day temperature increase.
- The official site at ORD recorded measurable snow every day from Jan. 17th through Feb. 1st. That 16-day stretch is tied for the second-longest snow streak in recorded history.
- A total of 16.4” of snow fell during the streak, which tops the 15.6” recorded in the longest streak (18 days in 1960).
- We hadn’t had anything beyond 12 consecutive days since 1978.
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