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Dear Tom,
Has Chicago ever gone through a winter without a subzero temperature?
—Bill Philips
Dear Bill,
It has, but those winters are the exception, not the rule. Chicago weather historian Frank Wachowski, checking the record books back to the winter of 1871-72, said the city typically averages seven or eight subzero days. Wachowski noted that there have been only 13 winters when the mercury failed to dip below zero, most recently in 2011-12 and prior to that in 1982-83. The city’s longest stretch without a subzero reading spanned nearly four years from Feb. 20, 1936, through Jan. 4, 1940. So far this winter the city has logged four subzero days, all in January, with the season’s lowest reading of 4 below zero occurring Jan. 18.
