As May dawns, Chicago residents finally start to put away their scarves and winter coats, but this year, those items have remained out as the Windy City deals with a remarkable run of chilly weather.
And why has the temperature stayed so low? According to NBC 5’s Alicia Roman, the weather can be blamed on a phenomenon called the “Omega Block.” When that pattern takes place, the jet stream resembles the Greek letter Omega, keeping the western part of the United States toasty warm and the central United States icy cold.
As a result, temperatures in Chicago have remained in the 50’s for seven of the last eight days, and nighttime lows are routinely dropping to the mid-30’s.
Unfortunately, Chicagoans were given a false sense of hope by the weather in the early stages of the year. As recently as February, sunshine and record warm temperatures bathed the Chicago area, and families and citizens got to hit the beach because of the crazy heat wave.
On the positive side, temperatures are slowly expected to climb over the next few days, with the mercury hitting the 60’s over the weekend and creeping into the 70’s early next week.
