Friday almanac: October closes with near normal temperatures

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

CHICAGO — It was another day of near normal temperatures, including the 11^th straight day with highs in the 50s.  The official 53-degree maximum temperature fell a few degrees shy of the “normal” October 31 high temperature. 

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We began the day with a fair amount of sunshine but cloud cover increased by afternoon. The month ended with a slight sunshine surplus, 61% vs 57%.  It was breezy at times with a few gusts peaking above 20 mph. 

October, 2025 closes nearly 4-degrees above normal, and it was also drier than normal.  

Despite the relatively cool change in character to the month the past 11 days, October-2025 will finish around four degrees above normal at Midway Airport, good enough to rank in the top 10 warmest since records began on the south side in 1928. Sub-par rainfall trend that’s been persistent for much of this year continued  in October.  The month finished nearly an inch below normal and for 2025 to date overall, the precipitation deficit has grown to nearly 8.00”  

It was a fairly cool day across the country with the Lower 48 average high temperature only 59-degrees. The only area that was significantly above normal was across the Southwest where highs were some 5-10 degrees above normal.