Meteorological autumn nears midpoint, currently 2nd warmest of past 98 years

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

It was another mild day Tuesday, especially for areas away from the lake, where highs peaked in the low to mid 70s for the west, south and southwest suburbs. Cooler “NE winds” off the lake kept readings in the middle 60s for areas in close proximity to Lake Michigan. This now makes it 33 of the past 35 days to post a daily temperature surplus.  

Sponsored

class="wp-block-image size-large">

Warm Autumn 2025 to date 

It’s been a warm start to fall thus far. Since September 1, the 69.6-degree average temperature is nearly 4.5 degrees above normal and good enough to rank 2^nd warmest on record at Midway Airport since records began there nearly a century ago.  

Tuesday sunshine

Sunshine returned by afternoon following a cloudy start to the day. About half the possible sun was recorded for the day.   

Tuesday wind gusts

Northeast winds off the lake gusted past 20 mph at times, keeping it cooler for lakeside areas. 

Fall foliage update

There continues to be a slow, but steady increase in fall colors across the area and state on the latest update from “The Foliage Report”.    Peak fall colors are still likely to occur in the next two weeks, and for some areas, into the beginning of November.