Dear Tom,
When was the last time Chicago’s temperature dropped as low as –10 (degrees)?
John Zbesko
Dear John,
It has been quite a while–more than 6 years–since this city officially recorded a double-digit negative temperature. On Jan. 5, 1999, the thermometer at O’Hare dropped to a frigid low of –16 (degrees), while Midway was just one degree higher with at –15 (degrees). Since then, the temperature has bottomed out as low as –9 (degrees), but has never reached the –10 (degrees) level.
That is a far cry from the city’s brutally cold winters of the late 1970s and early 1980s when it seemed that temperatures of –10 (degrees) or lower occurred all the time. In 1982, readings dropped to –10 (degrees) or lower on eight different days and on seven occasions in 1979, 1983, 1985 and most recently in 1994. Some of these winters were so cold that a low of –10 (degrees) was actually an improvement, after strings of days with readings between –15 (degrees) and –25 (degrees).
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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.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
