Dear Tom,
How long has it been since Chicago’s last 100(degrees) day? It seems like it has been a long time.
Bob Gaudio Northbrook, Ill.
Dear Bob,
Actually it’s only been two years since the city sweltered through a sizzling 102(degrees) high on July 24, 2005, a steamy Sunday when thousands of music fans crammed into Grant Park to attend the Lollapalooza concert. That day marked the city’s only triple-digit temperature since a 101(degrees) high occurred back on July 30, 1999. The only summer in recent memory with an excess of 100(degrees) days was the infamous drought summer of 1988 when the city officially registered seven days with highs reaching the century mark. In the 19 summers that followed, there have only been seven more days in the 100s–one in 1989, two in 1991, two during the city’s 1995 killer heat wave and the two previously mentioned occurrences in 1999 and 2005.
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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.
