As residents across Chicago hunker down for a less-than-white Christmas, meteorologists chart a course of steady cloud cover and chances of rainfall in the upcoming holiday week. Today, Chicago dwellers brace for a gray skyline, with forecasts anticipating a tepid high near 39 degrees, while a persistent northeast wind plots a path at around 5 to 10 mph.
Tonight's weather patterns are expected to echo today's conditions with clouds looming steadfast and lows settling into the low to mid-30s, Christmas Day whispers a slight chance of drizzle after 9:00 A.M. with temperatures maintaining their stance near 39 degrees, according to a statement obtained by National Weather Service. This mild weather offers some respite to Chicagoans who recall, with a shiver, the bone-chilling memory of Christmas Eve in 1983, when the city bore the brunt of a severe cold snap as wind chills plummeted to an unfathomable -82 degrees.
"There isn’t much sun in this forecast period, if any at all," remarks an analysis from FOX 32 Chicago, shading expectations for a luminous holiday. The week progresses with Thursday seeing a potential 20 percent chance of rain and cloud cover persisting, while temperatures edge warmer to the mid-40s, and while the Bears game is forecasted to remain dry, Friday through Sunday bear the promise of unseasonable warmth with the mercury rising to highs between 50-55 degrees, racketing up chances of rain, particularly on Friday and Saturday.
Reflecting on the weather past, this Tuesday also marks the anniversary of Chicago's historic low wind chill, reported by FOX 32 Chicago, on December 24, 1983, when the city's residents battled against a -25 degrees air temperature that with the current wind chill formula would equate to -57 degrees, certainly a weather event of excruciating severity in contrast to the current conditions forecasted to be decidedly more temperate albeit damp and retaining echoes of midwinter gloom.
