Monday almanac: Memorial Day temperatures well below normal despite sunshine

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

The persistent cool pattern continued on Memorial Day with official highs about seven degrees below normal despite the day’s generous sunshine.

The temperature range across the metro area was quite stunning thanks to northeast winds off still chilly waters of  Lake Michigan. In the far south and southwest suburbs, it was much warmer with peak readings in the middle 70s, but near the lake it was chilly as highs only reached the middle 50s. 

It’s been a very cool stretch! Over the past week, the 52.5-degree average temperature is not only more than 10 degrees below normal, but it ranks as the third-chilliest such period since O’Hare observations began in 1959 and the coolest since 2002.