Continued mild at Chicago into late next week
Chicago’s ongoing mild spell was interrupted Friday afternoon as rain changed to snow for a few hours. By 8:00 p.m., O’Hare Airport had measured 0.2 inches, and Midway 0.3 inches. These meager sums did not stick as temperatures held above freezing.
Farther north, nearly a foot was expected in Minnesota and Wisconsin around Lake Superior. The storm causing the weather passed just north of Chicago. In its wake, Saturday’s temperatures will plunge across Chicagoland but remain above normal—especially the overnight lows.
Mild weather returns Sunday to greet the new year, but the fast-track of frontal passage every two days continues, with rain returning by Sunday night into Monday, and again Tuesday night into Wednesday. Thereafter, the jet stream buckles and divides the country in two. In the West, the series of pounding Pacific storms ends, while more normal winter temperatures return east of the Rockies.