Big change looms next weekend for Chicago
Badly needed soaking rains brought official Chicago January precipitation totals to just over an inch above normal, marking it the first month since last February with above-normal precipitation.
According to veteran weather observer Frank Wachowski, this could also go down as the warmest January at Midway Airport since records began in 1928. So what may loom just five days in the future could bring Chicagoans back to reality. A midweek warm-up back into the 40s is anticipated, but indications are that a significant change in the upper air pattern is developing which could jar the west-east jet stream flow off a track it has held for over 40 days into a wintry north-south orientation by week’s end. As this upper air transition comes about, a low pressure could be born in the lower Mississippi Valley. Moving north and east, the intensifying low would draw on cold arctic air and warm, moist Gulf of Mexico air to generate a winter storm over the Great Lakes.