Three days at or above 50° in next five
Arctic chill has retreated far to the north of Chicago and there is no sign that it will return soon.
A powerful west-to-east jet stream is establishing itself across central Canada—an upper-level wind pattern sufficient to prevent southward-bound incursions of frigid air into the United States.
It’s a pattern reminiscent of past “El Nino” winters that produced above-normal temperatures and sub-normal snowfall here and across the Midwest.
Tuesday’s high of 41º was the warmest in nearly two weeks, but that’s only a preview of mild temperatures immediately ahead. Chicago’s temperatures are set to surge to 50º or higher on three of the next five days—an event that has occurred only three times in the Dec. 30 - Jan. 3 period in 133 years of the city’s official temperature records.