Wednesday almanac: Hottest day in a nearly a month 

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

Temperatures soared Wednesday afternoon, reaching 90 degrees plus at both major airports for only the second time in 2025. Even far west suburban St. Charles broiled at 95 degrees, the area’s hot spot.

The warmth arrived with abundant sunshine and a gusty southwest wind which pushed the early season heat up to area beaches and prevented any lake cooling from occurring. Only one other day so far this year has been any warmer: May 15, when the high reached 94-degrees.  

Our exclusive Weather Bug network camera from Edgewater Beach showed the scores of people taking advantage of a rare very warm day. Water temperatures remain chilly for the brave souls that decided to venture into Lake Michigan to cool off.  

Early evening temperature snapshot/wind gusts  

Temperatures continued quite warm and noticeably warmer than the same period on Tuesday thanks to a steady southwest wind pumping in the early season heat.  

Highs across the U.S/Departures from normal 

The surge of summer-level heat wasn’t confined to Chicago, many locations across the Midwest logged highs more than 10-degrees above normal. The 92-degree high in Chicago was warmer than perennially hotter southern cities Dallas, Houston and New Orleans. 

Allergy Report