The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Fleeting warmth, then the chill

Briefly, overnight, the temperature at O'Hare hit

1°C before beginning its slow slide to -9°C just now. And it's getting colder, with a forecast -18°C tonight, then a spurt up to -2°C tomorrow afternoon, then an inexorable slide all day Monday to the depths of hell. Between dawn Monday and noon Wednesday—60 straight hours—we'll have temperatures below -18°C just like two weeks ago.

Of course, two weeks ago, it got a little bit warmer on Tuesday. Not this time. And yet, it still won't be as bad as Christmas 1983, when we spent 100 hours below zero Fahrenheit.

We're creeping toward another awful record, too. The greatest number of days we've ever had in one month below zero Fahrenheit was January 1977, when we had 17. Tonight's will be 12. Monday, Tuesday, then possibly Wednesday and Thursday...that will be 16. Can we do it Friday, the 31st, and tie the record? I hope to dog not.

For some reason, we're unusually sick of winter this year.

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