• Steady warming over recent days and in the days ahead is to deliver Chicago its warmest weather to date in 2023. April 2023’s opening 10 days are running an impressive 7-degrees warmer than the same period a year ago.
  • Chicago high temperatures have gone from 49 Friday to 62 Saturday, 68 Easter Sunday and may reach 71 today in the remaining hours of the afternoon. That’s a 22-degree increase in just 3 days.
  • The week as a whole is likely to come in 14-degrees warmer than last week and an eye-catching 18-degrees above normal.
  • Significantly, a tightening pressure gradient will lead to a well developed “SW” flow which will overcome lake cooling. “SW” winds will pick up each late morning and afternoon gusting at times as high as 31 mph Tuesday, 36 mph Wednesday and 25 mph Thursday according to current modeling.
  • The sun will filter through some mixed clouds Tuesday. But, cloud coverage is to decrease Wednesday and Thursday, allowing the full intensity of the April sun to go to work on the air mass producing maximum cooling. Correcting for recent computer model biases, temps may well reach 80 Wednesday and could reach 83 Thursday—the first time Chicagoans have enjoyed back to back 80-degree daytime temps in the nearly 7 months since late September.
  • The building dome of warm air forces the storm-carrying jet stream to Chicago’s north, shutting down precipitation production through the coming work week. Not until Saturday and Saturday night is there to be any precipitation here.
  • Cool weather isn’t completely behind us yet. April is a finnicky month for temperatures—quite capable of producing chilly spells. Such a downturn is expected this coming Sunday and Monday.
  • Freezing temperatures become less frequent in coming weeks and months. The average final day for a 32 in Chicago since 2000 has been on or about April 17, but freezing or lower temps have historically had longer to run. The average dates of the late 32-degree temperature have been May 2nd in Wanatah, IN; April 28 Lowell, IN; April 26 Rockford; April 23 in DeKalb and April 21 in Kankakee. Since thermometers are officially placed 5 feet above ground, sub-freezing, frost-generating temps can occur in a shallow layer near the ground even later. So it’s hardly time to plant perishable plants sensitive to freezing temps just yet.