Dear Tom,
I am in 3rd grade, and our class is studying about weather. My teacher said I should ask you if it ever got to 100 degrees in Chicago.
— Zain Mohammed
Dear Zain,
Chicago’s temperature has indeed risen to 100 degrees, though not very often. Chicago weather historian Frank Wachowski reports that the thermometer at Midway Airport has registered at least one day at or above 100 degrees in 30 of the 80 years (1928-2007) for which we have data at that location.
And one (but only one) of those super-hot days occurred in May, and right at this time of the year. On May 31, 1934, the Midway temperature zoomed to 102 degrees. Chicago’s all-time high temperature also was recorded at Midway: a scorching 109 degrees on July 23, 1934.
Chicago’s most recent 100-degree day occurred three years ago: 104 degrees on July 24, 2005.
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