Thursday almanac: Heat breaks 63-year-old high temperature record for the date

NOTE: This article is now an almanac of Thursday’s weather. We have published a new forecast story for Friday.

It was a historic day Thursday across Chicagoland in terms of temperatures. The mercury soared to a record-setting 94 degrees at O’Hare International Airport and 95 degrees at Midway International Airport.

The mercury at O’Hare, where Chicago’s official temperature is recorded, reached 92 degrees at about 3:30 p.m, breaking a high temperature record set for this date in 1962. The temperature then proceeded to go up to 94, setting a new record for the date.

At Midway, it was a nearly unprecedented level of heat for this early in the season. Only three other years since records began there in 1928 have been this hot this early in the year: 1934, 1949, and 2022.

Temperatures even reached the upper 90s well southwest of Chicago. 

Late-evening temperature snapshot: July-level heat and how much warmer it was than the same time Wednesday:

Enhanced satellite view of the storms erupting Thursday evening: 

The unusual early season heat coupled with high humidity helped fuel some powerful thunderstorms Thursday evening. The heaviest storms produced large, destructive hail and damaging gusts that reached 62 mph at Harvard, Fox Lake Hills and Sycamore.