Thursday: Lake breeze induces 16-degree temperature Spread Across Chicagoland

For the official stations (O’Hare, Midway and Lakefront), it was a cooler, but still pleasant day on Thursday. Highs were 5-10 degrees lower than the low 80s observed on Wednesday afternoon. The official 77 degree reading at O’Hare high marked a five degree drop from Wednesday, but equaled the “normal” high for September 11.

For the west and south/southwest suburbs it was a continuation of the 80 degree temperatures that began a day ago. Streator, Kankakee and Herscher logged highs well into the 80s while a more organized “NNE wind” off Lake Michigan’s upper 60-degree lake waters kept temperatures along the lake and North Shore in the lower 70s.     

September continues its sunny ways with nearly 100% of the day’s possible sunshine Thursday, with the month now at 79%, well above the normal of 65%.  

Thursday allergy count

Rinse and repeat, no good news to be found on the pollen count and this is likely to continue for at least the next couple of weeks unfortunately.  

Thursday U.S. high temperatures

Heat continues to build across the Midwest and Plains, a sign to come here for the Chicago area as we move into the weekend. Rapid City, SD broiled at 99-degrees, eclipsing the old record for today of 97-degrees set ironically just a year ago. Kansas City saw the mercury soar back into the 90s and St. Louis fell one degree short.

Thursday high temperatures & departure from normal

The new pattern is evident by this map as much of the Central U.S. logged highs well above normal, with the greatest surpluses across the Northern Plains.