CBS 2 Vault: The Warmest And Coldest Chicago Christmases On Record, In Back-To-Back Years
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago got quite the Christmas gift back in 1982 – in the form of a record-setting warm day that remains unbeaten 37 years later.
But exactly one year later to the day, Mother Nature got even as Chicago suffered through the weather equivalent of a stocking full of coal. It wasn't quite as cold as the polar vortex days of late January 2019, but it was close.
On Christmas Day 1982, Lake Michigan was blue and brilliant – and there were windsurfers out on the water. As CBS 2's John Davis reported at the time, it was like a page out of Christmas in Miami.
The high topped out that day at 64 degrees.
Along the Lakefront Trail, there were joggers, bike riders, and even at least one bare-chested roller-skater. And while it may not have been quite warm enough to go around in swimwear, one man and woman were seen in long sleeves on the beach soaking up the sun.
Another pair broke out the champagne and toasted the sun. And who wouldn't?
And as for those windsurfers? Davis talked with one of them, who had planned to go to Florida for Christmas and was none too disappointed that he decided not to.
But Davis' report came with a warning passed along from the late CBS 2 Meteorologist Harry Volkman. The spring-like weather for Christmas 1982 was not expected to stick around beyond that weekend.
But for the rest of that particular winter, it never got as cold as it did on the following Christmas Day in 1983.
The low for Christmas Day 1983 was 17 below zero. The high didn't even crack zero – topping out at -5. So needless to say, CBS 2's Phil Ponce was not talking with any windsurfers when he reported on the conditions in the city that frigid day.
The city had an icy beauty to it. But cold that extreme, of course, can be dangerous – and some Chicagoans found it hard to be merry.
In one high-rise in the Cabrini-Green public housing development, windows were caked with ice after the heat went out in 140 units on Christmas Eve when a pipe burst. Christmas Eve had been even colder than Christmas Day, with a low of 25 below zero.
Calls from people in need of a warm place poured into the city's heat hotline.
Some people were willing to take the bitter Christmas cold in stride – as a mildly annoying chore like, as Ponce put it, "cleaning up the wrapping paper after the gifts are ripped open."
"It doesn't bother me. I'm used to it," said one man who was not even wearing a hat. "Twenty-five years in Chicago, you get used to cold weather."
As CBS 2 Meteorologist Robb Ellis has been telling us this weekend, Christmas 2019 will be a lot closer to the windsurfing Noël of 1982 – though not quite that warm. The forecast high for Christmas Day on Wednesday is 52 degrees – which would make for a tie for the fifth warmest on record.
As for a year from now, we shan't jinx anything.