Dear Tom,
This Chicago summer seemed to have passed without any remarkable heat waves. How close does the single-day high temperature for 2016 compare with the all-time record-low high for a Chicago summer?
— Tom Gregg, Niles
Dear Tom,
Very high temperatures have been noticeably absent from Chicago summers in recent years. This summer’s official high of 93 recorded June 20 and July 24 at O’Hare International Airport were actually the city’s highest readings since the 2013 summer, when it reached 96 degrees on three occasions. Checking city records dating to 1871, there have been 16 summers when the highest temperature was less than 93, but 10 of those were prior to 1942, when the official thermometer was located near the lake’s cooling breezes. The city’s lowest maximum temperature for a summer is 89 degrees, recorded in 1875, the only Chicago summer when the mercury failed to reach 90.
