Coolest November in five years in its final hours
The books close on Chicago’s chilliest November of the past five years Friday night at midnight. The month’s 38.6° estimated average temp -- 4 degrees cooler than November a year ago and nearly 0.5° below normal—counters the mild temperature trend which has dominated the three month meteorological autumn 2007 period. The season is to finish 20th warmest since records began here 137 years ago.
Friday’s predicted high of 34° becomes the eighth of the past 9 days with highs which have failed to break out of the 30s. Thursday’s 33° high was the second coolest of this fall and a stunning 30° cooler than the 60° on the same date a year ago.
December, typically the area’s cloudiest, 2nd snowiest and 3rd coldest month of the year, gets underway Saturday with 14 central U.S. states under winter storm watches. Chicago is in for its second major round of precipitation since just before Thanksgiving.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist