After a pre-holiday storm brought snow, dangerous cold and high winds to the Chicago area, making travel hazardous, canceling hundreds of flights and forcing changes in weekend plans, what can you expect for the holiday weekend itself?
It's going to be a cold one.
After wind chills near 40 degrees below zero Friday, strong winds and continued cold will keep things bitter for both Saturday and Sunday. Air temperatures will struggle to break 10 degrees Fahrenheit both days, making for one of the chilliest Christmases on record in the Chicago area. With stronger winds persisting, the feels like temperatures will remain significantly colder and also continue the threat of blowing snow.
A clipper system could also move through the region late Sunday night and into Monday, bringing another chance of accumulating snow and possibly hazardous travel conditions, according to the National Weather Service.
The coldest Christmas on record took place on Dec. 25, 1983, when the high temperature was a staggering minus-5 degrees at O’Hare International Airport.
The second-coldest occurred just two years later in 1985, when the high temperature was 2 degrees.
Weather
Needless to say, this Christmas will be a significant departure from the last few years. In 2019, Chicago recorded a high temperature of 57 degrees on Christmas Day, making it the second-warmest Christmas on record. Last winter, the high temperature on Christmas was 55 degrees, the fifth-warmest on record.
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