Chicago sets a new daily heat record of 97 degrees

A blistering Monday in Chicago brought a new record high temperature of 97 degrees for June 17, breaking the previous record by one degree as a heatwave forecast to last through the week bears down on the city.

National Weather Service meteorologist Brett Borchardt said the record high occurred at O’Hare Airport around 3:16 p.m. and only lasted a few minutes.

“We had some clouds that moved over the airport and that cooled the temperature a few degrees and that’s all it took,” he said.

The city reached its preceding June 17 record of 96 degrees in 1887 and 1957, Borchardt said.

The forecast remains scorching for the rest of the week, he said, although areas by Lake Michigan are expected to be slightly cooler Thursday and Friday.

Zachary Yack, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service of Chicago, said highs will “top out in the low to mid-90s throughout much of this upcoming week. And with those humidity values, that will probably push heat indices in that 95 to 105-degree temperature range.”

Heat indices combine atmospheric temperatures and relative humidity for a realistic measure of how humans experience the weather.

On average, Chicago experiences about four days of 90-degree temperatures in June every year. The city’s longest stretch of 90-degree weather for the month of June occurred seven decades ago — in 1954 — and lasted 11 days.

Tribune reporter Adriana Pérez contributed.