Chicago’s 2nd fastest-warming month arrives
Of all months, few have a wider meteorological repertoire than April. It’s a characteristic evident in the predicted weather swings of the next two weeks. The cool temps of coming days yield to milder readings and bursts of thundery weather by next Tuesday and Wednesday. Chicago’s “normal” (most recent 30-year average) daily high temps rise over the coming 30 days from 53° on April 1 to 64° on April 30—an 11° increase! Only March boasts a more significant monthly surge in daytime highs.
Chicago has experienced everything from snowstorms to tornadoes and occasional 90° temperatures in April.
April 1-2, 1970 hosted a crippling 10.7” snowstorm. Only three years earlier, the infamous Oak Lawn tornado dipped from area skies on April 21. Other twisters occurred in Belvidere and Lake Zurich. That April 1967 tornado outbreak remains Chicago worst on record.
-Tom Skilling