Chicago’s warmest February open in 56 years; Atmospheric River flooding parts of California

Thursday was Chicago warmest day in the 37 days since a 59° high at O’Hare on Christmas Day

Highs Thursday hit 55 degrees at O’Hare and 56 degrees at Midway. But the warmth faded fast. Winds shifted NNE behind a southbound “PNEUMONIA COLD FRONT”—so named because of such front’s tendency to send temperatures diving as winds shift into the area from the “NNE” off the chilly Lake Michigan waters.

February is typical Chicago’s 2^nd coldest and 2^nd snowiest month of the year. 

Yet—each of the coming 14 days is to produce a temp surplus here. In fact, this week is likely to close having produced an average temp close to 13-degrees ABOVE NORMAL despite the cooler winds now sweeping the area and likely to continue into early next week restraining daytime highs along and near the Lake Michigan shoreline.

TO SHOW HOW UNUSUAL THE PRE-FRONTAL MID 50s IN THE CITY HAVE BEEN TODAY:

• Until today, there had been no 50-degree or milder Feb. 1 high temps in the 34 years since 1990.
• Only four other Feb. 1’s since official records began here in 1871 have recorded 50-degrees or milder highs
• The 55-degree official high at O’Hare came in 23-degrees ABOVE NORMAL

Had Midway Airport been our official Chicago observation site, the 56-degree Thursday high at the South Side site would have tied the record for the day.

13 years ago in 2011 the Chicago area was on the verge of the infamous Groundhog Day Blizzard

The blizzard was to drop 21.2″ of snow which rode wind gusts up to 70 mph on the Chicago shoreline. The blizzard, which included “thundersnow” stranded hundreds in snowdrifts on Lake Shore Drive—in some cases for 12 to 14 hours.

A PATTERN CHANGE CONTINUES TO SHOW UP in medium-range computer model projections out in the 2-week range

That would put a shift to colder, more seasonable temps as an increasingly real possibility toward mid-month. However, before that happens, there are indications we’ll revisit the 50s in the area in the back half of next week potentially going into the following weekend.

February continues to see the daily allotment of sunlight on the rise

Daylight will increase 72 minutes by Feb 29^th this month. (This is a Leap Year—so February has a 29^th day in 2024).

Heavy rainfall across portions of California—and this is not the last storm they will see

National Weather Service -Los Angeles says this storm could end up generating unprecedented amounts of rain across a widespread area. A new, powerful storm later this weekend threatens to bring potentially life-threatening flooding