Chicago’s first truly wintry weather is in sight. Though the season’s first blast of pure arctic air isn’t to arrive until Sunday night, a modest temperature downturn later Friday signals the beginning of the transition to colder weather. A storm, spawned by the first stage of this pattern realignment, is spinning up directly over the Midwest. As it intensifies, the strengthening rush of air into the system is to produce a noteworthy increase in wind velocities here this afternoon, importing enough cold air to introduce wet snowflakes to at least parts of the area Friday night.
Thursday’s 50(degrees) high–the third of the week and a reading 13(degrees) above normal–is only the 17th to occur on Dec. 9 in 134 years. Record warmth was reported in Texas Thursday. Temps reached 81(degrees) Austin and 78(degrees) in Galveston. 95 m.p.h. wind gusts blasted sections of Montana. Gusts farther east on Mt. Washington, N.H. reached 133 m.p.h.
———-
Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
