Dear Tom,
I’m 10 years old, and I would like to know the latest date it has ever snowed in Chicago. Has it ever snowed in May or June?
Tony Viso
Dear Tony,
The calendar has now advanced well into spring, and we have already experienced a few warm days with temperatures in the 80s–but the threat of at least a little bit of snow still lingers. Not a big threat, to be sure, but at least in the realm of conceivability some years.
Snow has fallen in Chicago as late as June 2 (in 1910). It was a “trace event,” meaning snowflakes in the air but no accumulation on the ground. High and low temperatures that cold spring day were 55(degrees) and 43(degrees), and snowflakes briefly mixed in with rain. That event marks the only occasion on which snow has fallen in June in 122 years of official Chicago records. It snows more often in May: One May in four sees at least a few flurries.
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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.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
