Dear Tom,
I remember a very warm Christmas in 1982, then one so cold a few years later that people were afraid to shut off their cars for fear they wouldn’t start. Did these both set records?
–Sharon Tamura, Chicago
Dear Sharon,
You are recalling Chicago’s two most memorable Christmases (in a meteorological sense), and they actually occurred back to back. Christmas 1982 was the city’s warmest on record in an El Nino-influenced winter. The temperature reached a balmy record high of 64 degrees on a Christmas so mild that many people were wearing shorts and washing their cars. The very next year, the bottom dropped out of the thermometer as the mercury plunged to a record low of minus 25 degrees on Christmas Eve, followed by the city’s coldest Christmas with a high of just minus 5 and a low of minus 17.
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Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or: asktomwhy@wgntv.com
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