It’s official. Despite Tuesday sunshine, January, 2023 will go down on the books as the cloudiest January since sunshine records were taken starting 129 years ago in 1894. That’s the word from Frank Wachowski who reports the month hosted only 18% of its possible sun–eclipsing the 1998 record of 20%!

Now–on to our cold weather!! The winter’s second significant outbreak of arctic air produced the coldest temps of the month Tuesday morning.

7am CST Tuesday WIND CHILL TEMPS

So how cold did it get across the area?

The -1-deg low temp at O’Hare ties Tuesday morning for the 3rd coldest morning of the 2022-23 cold season.

Full forecast details at the WGN Weather Center

Here’s how the coldest temps have stacked up to date this winter:

  • -8 Dec 23
  • -6 Dec 22
  • -1 Dec 24
  • -1 This morning (January 31)

Snow cover played a role. One inche of snow is on the ground at Midway and three inches at O’Hare. Morning measurements by our wonderful COCRAHS volunteer observers indicate 9.5″ covers the ground in Woodstock with 8″ on the ground in Lake Villa and Woodstock in Illinois and 8″ across the Wisconsin line in Kenosha county’s Pleasant Prairie. Snow cover tapers to just a trace at Peotone and 0.8″ in Hebron, IN. (I’m posting a map of COCRAHS snow depths as of 6am CST Tuesday morning and a NWS snow analysis for the country among the graphics below).

7am CST TEMPS

Here are Tuesday mornings low temps in and around the greater Chicago area:

  • -18 South Beloit
  • -14 Roscoe
  • -14 Genoa
  • -14 McHenry
  • -14 Mount Morris (Ogle County)
  • -13 Rochelle
  • -13 Pell Lake, WI
  • -13 Woodstock
  • -12 Wonder Lake
  • -12 Kirkland
  • -11 Sugar Grove
  • -11 Shabbona
  • -11 Huntley
  • -11 Rockford
  • -10 Richmond (McHenry County)
  • -8 Elgin
  • -8 DeKalb
  • -7 Gurnee
  • -7 Elburn
  • -7 Sublette (Ogle Conty)
  • -7 Buffalo Grove
  • -6 West Chicago
  • -6 Paw Paw (Lee County)
  • -6 St. Charles
  • -6 Arlington Heights
  • -5 Streamwood
  • -5 Aurora
  • -5 Oswego
  • -4 Naperville
  • -4 Roselle
  • -3 Utica
  • -3 Lake Forest
  • -3 Westmont
  • -3 Wheaton
  • -3 Plainfield
  • -3 Chatsworth
  • -2 Homer Glen
  • -2 Elk Grove Village
  • -1 Marseilles
  • -1 O’Hare-Chicago
  • 0 Romeoville
  • 0 New Lenox
  • 0 Coal City
  • 0 Midewin Tallgrass Prairie
  • 0 Grant Park (Kankakee County)
  • 0 Wilmette
  • 1 Peotone
  • 1 Wheeling
  • 1 Evanston
  • 1 Glenwood
  • 1 Roselawn, IN
  • 2 Burr Ridge
  • 3 Bonfield
  • 3 Kankakee
  • 3 Kouts, IN
  • 3 Hebron, IN
  • 3 Starke County Airport, IN
  • 3 Chesterton, IN
  • 3 Munster, IN
  • 3 LaGrange
  • 3 Midway Airport-Chicago
  • 4 Hobart, IN
  • 4 Portage, IN
  • 4 Valparaiso, IN
  • 4 Joliet
  • 4 Burnham
  • 5 East Chicago, IN
  • 5 Gary, IN
  • 6 LaPorte, IN
  • 6 Harrison-Dever Crib (3 miles off Chicago’s north shore)
  • 9 Burns Harbor, IN
  • 12 Michigan City, IN
  • 15 Saint Joseph, MI