Wednesday’s PM sunshine warmed Chicagoland to near-seasonal temps

NOTE: This story has been turned into an almanac of Wednesday’s weather. We have published a new forecast/weather story for Thursday.

Following a cloudy start to the day, partial sunshine emerged Wednesday afternoon and temperatures warmed into the middle 50s in areas away from Lake Michigan, a near seasonable reading for a fifth consecutive day.

Light northeast winds off the lake kept lakeside areas considerably cooler, where highs only reached the lower to middle 40s.         

Unseasonable warmth across the Rockies and western Plains was common Wednesday afternoon, where highs were 20-degrees or more above normal, a sign of things to come here in the Chicagoland area in a couple of days.