After 31 days of snow cover, 40 days without a temperature above 10°C, 67 days without four consecutive days above 5°C, and not one night above freezing since December 29th, Chicago is finally, finally getting warmer weather:
Warming in coming days—a slow process at first—leads to a 50-degree [Fahrenheit] temperature increase by Saturday afternoon. The day may produce the first 50-degree high here since late December.
(Skilling wrote that around 11pm CST yesterday when the temperature was heading down to its overnight low of -19°C.)
Here's the National Weather Service temperature plot for the next 48 hours, predicting a rise from -9°C up to 7°C by noon Saturday:
I really can't wait. Really. I'm wearing long johns under my suit right now, which is just plain wrong.
Update, 3:25pm CST: Ahhh. The temperature has already risen 15°C in the past 12 hours.