Old Man Winter is continuing to bypass the Windy City area as a storm is bringing unseasonably warm weather and heavy rain. Along with strong southerly winds, the temperatures in Chicago peaked to the mid-50s Wednesday night as sporadic thunderstorms with heavy rain soaked the area. The warm weather will move through the area Thursday morning as temperatures will drop to more normal December levels in the 30s for the end of the week.
Officials at O’Hare airport reported that more than 1 ½ inches of rain fell Wednesday which is a record for December. More rain is expected to fall early today before the cooler weather moves in. The rain is coming from the same system which dumped heavy snowfall in New Mexico and Arizona. Chicagoians can expect winds to be be variable, blowing between 10 and 20 miles per hour with some gusting up to 40 mph early Thursday.
As things look now, people living in Chicago will probably not have a white Christmas this year as there is no real threat of substantial snow in the immediate forecast. While the temperatures are dropping within normal range Thursday, they are expected to rise once again Sunday and remain steady in the high 30s and low 40s. A mixture of rain and snow showers is forecast for Tuesday but with temperatures expected to hover around 39 degrees, a slushy mix is expected which will melt quickly once it hits the ground.
The standard is that one inch of rain equals ten inches of snow. That means if the nearly 2 inches of rain that fell in Chicago would have been snow, it would have resulted in over 1 ½ feet of snow on the ground. But, those wishing for a white holiday and the thousands of Chicago area school children dreaming of school closings will just have to wait and see if measurable amounts of snow will indeed fall during the next ten days.
