Chicago Breaks 2 Back-to-Back Records for Cold Temperatures

The Chicago area saw plenty of snow to start the week - but that was just the beginning of the winter weather, as a record-breaking cold snap descended on the area Tuesday. 

After a snowstorm dropped several inches of snow on some locations, frigid temperatures came in the overnight hours, cold enough to break two single-day records in two days. Temperatures dropped into the low teens, with some areas seeing the mercury fall into single digits. 

The first of the two back-to-back records broken came Monday night, when the temperature dropped to 13 degrees at O'Hare Airport before midnight. That beats the previous low temperature of 15 degrees recorded in that same location back in 1950. 

Then, the temperature at O'Hare in the early morning hours reached just 7 degrees, marking a new single-day record low for the city. The record low temperature for Chicago on Nov. 12 was previously 8 degrees above zero, set in 1986. 

Tuesday morning started clear, with those low temps feeling even colder due to wind chill readings between 0 and -10 degrees. The highs for Tuesday will be only in the teens, which will likely be enough to also shatter the coldest high temperature for the date, which was set in 1995 when the high only reached 28 degrees in the city. 

These kinds of temperatures are running roughly 30 degrees below average for this time of the year and will shatter the record cold high temperature for the day.

After a day of bitter cold, temperatures will gradually increase, reaching the upper 20s to low 30s on Wednesday, with light snow developing late in the afternoon or evening.

Thursday will likely see light snow in the morning before a partly sunny afternoon but still cold with highs in the low 30s.

Temperatures will continue to slowly climb, with highs reaching the mid 30s on Friday and even 40 degrees on Saturday - though that's still running more than 10 degrees below average for this time of the year.

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