Dear Tom,
For at least a week now, the “Chicago Digest” on your weather page has been showing Chicago’s normal high and low temperatures as 29(degrees) and 14(degrees). They have not changed at all. I have been watching the normals since September and they always drop by one degree every two or three days, but now they are stuck. What’s happening?
Robert Meyer
Dear Robert,
It might seem as if Chicago’s daily normal temperatures are “stuck,” but they’re not–they’re “bottoming.”
The annual cycle of the city’s normal high and low temperatures swings endlessly from a peak of 84(degrees)/64(degrees) in July to (as you have correctly observed) a bottom at 29(degrees)/14(degrees) in January, after which time the daily normals begin to rise once again. In fact, the daily normals sit at 29(degrees)/14(degrees) for 14 days, Jan. 8-21, then rise a degree on the 22nd. Climatologically, we are now in the coldest part of the year.
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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.
