Chicagoans treated to first back-to-back 80s in 7 months
Official highs of 83° and 82° Monday and Tuesday marked Chicago’s first back-to-back 80s since last September. Using history as a guide, the twin 80s arrived on schedule. Consecutive 80° highs have occurred within a day or two of May 5 over the 79 years weather observations have been taken at Midway Airport.
An unusually powerful late season coastal storm off the Southeast Coast may be investigated by Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters Wednesday. At present, the storm is producing 50+ m.p.h. gales and two story high seas, but it’s technically a non-tropical system, which means the temperatures aloft in its clouds remain cold and there is a discernible temperature spread across the system. The cloud formation process over warm ocean waters in storms of this type has been known to release such huge quantities of latent heat energy, that its clouds have warmed—an important step toward tropical storm or hurricane formation.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist