Chicago Weather: Spike In Our 90-Degree Days This Summer
by CBS 2 Meteorologist Tammie Souza
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Wonder if there have been more "hot" summer days this year in Chicago? The simple answer is yes.
On average, Chicago sees fourteen 90-degree days each year. As of August 26th of this year, there have already been nineteen 90-degree days, and that total will likely reach 20-plus days over the weekend.
July is typically our hottest month, averaging eight 90-degree days, but that wasn't the case this year. Our July temperatures ran more than a degree below average and only hit the 90's five times. So far, June sits on top in 2021 with eight 90-degrees days, followed by August with five and counting, July with five, and May with one.
We have also seen two official heat waves this summer, one in June and the other this week. A heat wave is considered 3 days consecutive days in the 90's.
Whatever number of 90-degree days we finally have this year, it will pale in comparison to the summer of 1988 when there were 47 days in the 90's.
On the flip side, we haven't had a 100-degree day since the stretch of extreme heat during July of 2012. Triple digit days are rare in Chicago, and only 65 of them have been recorded since 1871 (when record keeping began). That averages out to early one triple-digit heat day every 3 years.
We are long overdue.
