The final two weeks of Aprils which have opened as chilly as this one–14th coldest of the past 137 years–exhibit a disturbing tendency to remain cooler than normal, though the temperature deficit is usually less extreme than in the final two weeks. That’s the finding of our analysis of five comparably chilly April 1-12 periods over the past 79 years at the city’s Midway Airport site. Only one of those five late-April periods turned milder than average. There also appears a fairly strong link between chilly-opening Aprils and the meteorological spring period (March through May) in the data. Each of the five springs which included a chilly April open ended up cooler than normal as well. That by no means eliminates spells of warm weather completely–far from it. But it suggests Friday’s surge to 50(degrees) and the 62(degrees) predicted Tuesday before chilly NE winds return mid and late next week, may happen with less frequency. Longer range computer forecasts are suggesting a move to milder temperatures in the 1-2 week range–possibly a signal of a more typical April temperatures at that time.
Sources: National Weather Service-Chicago
WGN-TV/Thomas Valle, Michael Lawson, Chad Merinsky
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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.
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