There was no shortage of unusual and near-historic weather in 2023, but some moments clearly stood out above the rest.
NBC 5 Storm Team Meteorologist Kevin Jeanes took a look back at some of the biggest weather moments from every month.
Here's a look at what happened:
JANUARY – Jan. 28-29: 7 to 8 inches of snow fell in northern Illinois near Wisconsin while most of the Chicago area saw freezing rain. It was the 11th warmest month of January on record.
FEBRUARY – Feb. 27: Two EF-0 tornadoes touched down in Naperville and in the Joliet/Plainfield area. Only 3.7 inches of snow was recorded at O’hare that month.
MARCH – March 31: 146 tornadoes touched down across the country, 37 in Illinois, and 22 in the Chicago area. It’s the second-largest tornado outbreak for Illinois, and the third-largest tornado outbreak across the country, behind only the super outbreaks of 2011 and 1974.
APRIL – April 4: Morning storms brought widespread, golfball-sized hail. One report in Oswego of a 3-inch hailstone was the largest reported in northeast Illinois since April 7, 2020.
Weather
MAY – On average it’s our rainiest month of the year, but May 2023 was the driest May in Chicago since 1994. Only 0.71 inches of rain was recorded at O’hare, making it the fourth-driest month of May on record.
JUNE – Chicago momentarily became the city with the worst air quality in the world as Canadian wildfire smoke blanketed the Midwest and Northeast. Wildfire smoke would return multiple times through the summer.
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JULY – July 2: Heavy rain causes flash flooding leading up to the NASCAR race in the city. More than 6 inches of rain fell in parts of Chicago, Oak Park, and Cicero. On the evening of July 12, 13 tornadoes touched down across northeast Illinois. Of those, 10 were EF-0, three were EF-1.
AUGUST – Aug. 24: Historic heat wave. Exceptionally humid air raises the heat index to 120 degrees, the highest on record. The temperature reached 100 degrees for the first time since 2012. A dew point temperature of 80 degrees was recorded Aug. 23 for the first time since 1999.
SEPTEMBER – Sept. 17: Narrow bands of heavy rain brings localized flash flooding to southern Cook County and Northwest Indiana. Between 7 and 9 inches of rain fell in and around Calumet City in just a few hours.
OCTOBER – Oct. 31: It was the second-coldest Halloween with a high of only 38 degrees, and the second-snowiest with 0.9” at O’Hare. Some areas saw up to 3 inches of snow. Both the coldest and snowiest Halloween was in 2019.
NOVEMBER – The weekend after Thanksgiving brought us our only real taste of winter so far this season with 1.8 inches of snow and highs in the 20s Nov. 27 and Nov. 28. They marked the only days to stay below 30 degrees - even through December.
DECEMBER – Christmas Day: Chicago reached a high of 59 degrees. That’s the second-warmest Christmas and it’s more than 20 degrees warmer than it was on Halloween. We’re on pace for the warmest December in 100 years and the fourth warmest overall. It’s also a top-10 December for least amount of snowfall.
2023 – Overall it’s been a very warm and dry year with a handful of severe weather outbreaks and flash flooding events. This year will likely end up as the third-warmest year on record for Chicago with an average mean temperature of about 54 degrees. The record is 54.5 degrees from 2012, and the average is 51.2 degrees. Every month ended with above-average mean temperatures this year.
Precipitation is around 4 inches below the average on the year. April, May, June, August, October and November had a combined deficit of 12.88 inches below the average for those months. Heavy rain in July helped offset the drought slightly through summer.
A strong El Nino is still expected to continue through winter 2023-24, so a milder and drier-than-average pattern is still favored into January and February.
Data via National Weather Service Chicago
