Chicagoans enjoyed a sun-filled, 14-deg afternoon temp rebound from yesterday’s chill. Highs today surge to 56-deg as Pacific air surged into the area replacing the arctic chill behind the Halloween snowfall on Tuesday and Wednesday’s chilly 44-deg high.

Interestingly—temps a year ago surged to 72-degrees. The opening days of November 2023 have come in 16.5-deg cooler than Nov 1-2 a year ago.

We saw another 2 minutes and 28 sec of daylight disappear today (compared to yesterday). Days continue to shorten in the new month of November,  a trend that continues right up to the winter solstice (the first day of astronomical winter) which occurs Thursday, Dec 21 at 9:27 pm CDT.

While October said goodbye to 80 minutes of daylight, the pace at which daily sunlight diminishes slows a bit in November—Chicago’s fastest cooling month.  Between Nov 1 and 30th, 59 minutes of daylight will disappear.

The shift from Daylight Saving Time to Central Standard Time this weekend means the sun, which sets tonight at 5:44pm CDT will set, after we turn our clocks back an hour before heading to bed Saturday night, will set at 4:40pm Sunday evening.

The weather’s to remain quiet the remainder of the work week. A few spotty showers may dot the area later Friday and Friday night—but cool nights will give way to mild days through Friday with highs of 57 Friday.

A windshifting cold front which drops through the area Friday shifts  winds northeasterly Saturday off the 53-deg Lake Michigan waters. This cool things a bit along Lake Michigan for a day.  But temps appear poised to surge back to 60 Sunday and to 65 Monday as a storm system traversing the northern Midwest turns winds back to the south/southwest placing Chicago in the next system’s “warm sector”.  Sunday afternoon and, to a greater extent, Monday should take on a “spring-like” feel—though scattered showers and possibly a t-storm or two affect the area Monday. 

More impressive from a precipitation standpoint is the autumn storm system which arrives midweek next week. This system is to track south of Chicago placing the city in a cool east/northeasterly flow as rains fall in the Wednesday and Wednesday night time frame. The northerly winds on that system’s backside will bring colder air back into the area and daytime highs may spend a good deal of time in the 40s Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week.

The change to cooler weather this week has been jarring compared to the warmth last week—in particular the 83-deg high Tuesday.  While next week came in 9-deg above normal, this week is projected to close Saturday night more than 5-deg below normal. That means Chicagoans are dealing with a 14-deg weekly temp decline between last week and this week—quite a change!

One note—October 2023 finished mild and dry.  Five of the past 7 months have produced below normal precipitation. That was true in October with its 2.28″ precip tally—an amount 2/3’s normal and 1.15″ below normal.  But October 2023, which opened with four consecutive days of 80-deg and high temps closed with the 2^nd biggest Halloween snowfall of the past 138 years—-which came in at 0.9″ at O’Hare.  Also, 16 days were ABOVE NORMAL here in October; 14 closed BELOW NORMAL and two produced averages which were NORMAL.

HERE’S MY LATEST THURSDAY CHICAGO METRO FORECAST (11/2/2023):

TONIGHT: Scattered clouds until more clouds arrive in the predawn hours. Modestly breezy from the south/southwest and not quite a chilly as in recent nights. Low 44.

FRIDAY: More cloudy than not, becoming windy and seasonably mild. A few spotty showers possible in the afternoon and evening.  High 57.

FRIDAY NIGHT: A few light showers turning partly cloudy late. Initially gusty winds shift northerly and ease by late.  Low 43.

SATURDAY: Partly sunny—mild inland but cooler along Lake Michigan because of northeast winds.  High 55—cooler lakeshore.

SUNDAY: Partly cloudy to occasionally cloudy, milder. South winds return. High 60.

MONDAY: Windy and mild with clouds and some showers  through midday then breaks in the clouds.  High 66.

TUESDAY: Partly sunny and a little cooler—especially along Lake Michigan as northeast winds lock in. High 55.

WEDNESDAY: Good chance of rain developing. High 53.

THURSDAY: Mainly cloudy, breezy and cooler. Some sprinkles possible. High 50.