THE PROLONGED WARMTH HERE IN CHICAGO IS QUITE SOMETHING—We’re in the midst of the 11th CONSECUTIVE MONTH OF ABOVE NORMAL TEMPS in the city with the 7th warmest meteorological winter (which began Dec 1) on the books in 153 years of weather records dating back to 1871 and a temp surplus of +6.1-deg. We’re also in the midst of the 3rd warmest Feb to date in all those years (dating back to 1871) with a temp surplus as calculated by the Midwestern Regional Climate Center at Purdue University at 13.1-degrees.
Mild temps hold Wednesday but rain and shifting winds are to drop temps Thursday and a slug of arctic air is to sweep in Friday and hold into the weekend before additional warming takes place next week.
Temps this week, while likely to finish 3.6 degrees above normal, will end up just under 7 degrees cooler as a weekly average than last week—then warm just over 2 degrees as a weekly average next week—finishing 3.5 degrees above normal next week.
The transition to colder air Friday will be a gusty one with NNE winds which could tap some lake moisture and produce a period of snow. A dry weekend follows.
A ridge developing in western Canada brings steering winds in from the northwest, and that’s going to cool us off as we get into the weekend. Friday will be noticeably colder and it will be chilly on Saturday, cool on Sunday—but by February standards this is not barbaric cold like the below-zero temperatures that can happen this time of year. But we bounce right back into the Pacific air again next week warming up into the 40s.
Also of interest—while temps in Chicago during the recently completed January 2024 finished 1.1-degrees above normal and the ILLINOIS STATEWIDE TEMP DEPARTURE in January came in at 1.2-deg above normal—CHECK OUT THE LEVEL OF JANUARY, 2024 WARMTH IN THE STATES JUST TO OUR NORTH:
- Minnesota +9.2 degrees (11th warmest there since 1894)
- Wisconsin +8.5 degrees (10th warmest since 1894)
- Michigan +6.4 degrees (15th warmest since 1894)
HERE’S A LINK TO AN INTERACTIVE JANUARY, 2024 TEMP MAP from NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI): https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/…/110/tavg/202401/1/anomaly…
Rain chances increase Wednesday night and go into early Thursday with some lingering showers and then clear out, followed by a small snow system that comes in on Friday into Friday night
New York City has received its biggest snow in 745 days—including 3.2″ at Central Park in New York—but as much as 6.9″ in nearby by Coney Island, NY and 8″ in East Orange, NJ.
But sections of northern New Jersey and northeast Pennsylvania have been hit by more than a foot of snow—with as much as 15″ reported down in Sussex, NJ.
Here’s the storm that brought all the snow, already racing way out into the Atlantic:
A powerhouse 245 mph jet stream wind field in the central Pacific threatens a new series of El Niño-enhanced atmospheric river/Pineapple express storms heading into the West Coast this weekend and next week.
A powerhouse jet stream, just like the one that preceded the outbreak of storms a week ago out in California, has winds of 250 mph at the jet airplane level of 35,000 feet. The wind max moves toward the West Coast bringing rain beginning this weekend, but next week is when the atmospheric river storms will bring heavy rains in California. We’ll be hearing more about it as it moves over the West, but what it does is that it replenishes the supply of mild air that has dominated this winter over the Lower 48, and we see that reflected in the 7-day forecast for Chicago.
The prolonged warmth here in Chicago is quite something—we’re in the midst of the 11th consecutive month of above normal temps in the city
It’s the 7th warmest meteorological winter (which began Dec. 1) on the books in 153 years of weather records dating back to 1871 and a temp surplus of +6.1 degrees. We’re also in the midst of the 3rd warmest Feb to date in all those years (dating back to 1871) with a temp surplus as calculated by the Midwestern Regional Climate Center at Purdue University at 13.1 degrees.
Also of interest—while temps in Chicago during recently completed January 2024 finished 1.1-degrees above normal and the ILLINOIS STATEWIDE TEMP DEPARTURE in January came in at 1.2-deg above normal—CHECK OUT THE LEVEL OF JANUARY, 2024 WARMTH IN THE STATES JUST TO OUR NORTH:
Minnesota +9.2 degrees (11th warmest there since 1894)
Wisconsin +8.5 degrees (10th warmest since 1894)
Michigan +6.4 degrees (15th warmest since 1894)
HERE’S A LINK TO AN INTERACTIVE JANUARY, 2024 TEMP MAP from NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI): https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/…/110/tavg/202401/1/anomaly…
Minimal ice coverage of Great Lakes underscores this season’s mild weather
Further evidence of the mild winter across the Great Lakes region from our colleagues at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environment Research Laboratory (GLERL) who issue the following on the limited ice coverage we’ve witnessed this winter. Ice coverage is occurring on just 3% of Great Lakes waters.
WGN-TV Weather Team
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