Dear Tom,
My family doesn’t believe that Chicago has experienced days with highs below zero. How often do they occur?
Richard Lurie, Chicago
Dear Richard,
Days with subzero highs do occur in Chicago–albeit they are rare with only 44 on record since 1870. The city’s lowest daytime high of -11(degrees) has been recorded twice–once on a frigid Christmas Eve in 1983 and again on Jan. 18, 1994. The city has even experienced two three-day strings of subzero weather. The first was way back in January 1883 when the mercury failed to reach zero on Jan. 21 (-4(degrees)), Jan. 22 (-4(degrees)) and Jan. 23 (-1(degrees)). The second happened 100 years later in 1983 during a brutally cold Christmas period from Dec. 23-25 with highs of -6(degrees), -11(degrees) and -5(degrees), respectively. Chicago’s last encounter with subzero highs was nearly 11 years ago when back-to-back maximums of -5(degrees) were logged on Feb. 2 and 3, 1996.
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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.
