Dear Tom,
My wife and I were married on June 25, 1988. It was 103(degrees) that day, and our wedding cake melted! Were we married on Chicago’s hottest June day ever?
Chuck Walter
Dear Chuck,
Wedding days are supposed to be memorable, but not because of excessive heat and melted cake. Unfortunately, despite all of your heat-related problems that day, you cannot claim your wedding date as Chicago’s hottest June day. Just five days earlier on June 20, 1988, the city recorded an official high of 104(degrees), the first of three official 100s that month and a record seven for that terribly hot, drought summer.
Unofficially, it has even been hotter in Chicago in June. In the Dust Bowl summer of 1934, the temperature reached a sweltering 107(degrees) at Midway Airport on June 1, a reading often unnoticed because the day’s official high at the University of Chicago was only 102(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.
