For a second straight day, Chicago’s high temperature broke a record Tuesday as an unusually early warm spell lingered across the Midwest.
The mercury touched 87 degrees at 2:50 p.m., just 1 degree shy of Monday’s mark and 1 degree greater than the previous record for April 16 set in 1976. On this date last year, it snowed.
“This is phenomenal. The average temperature this time of year is 58 degrees,” said WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling. “This is one of the earliest warm spells of this intensity on record.”
More unusual perhaps is the possibility the city could see four straight days of 80-plus-degree temperatures, something that hasn’t been recorded this early in the year for more than 130 years, Skilling said.
“There’s at least a fair chance we could get to 80 [Wednesday] and we’re definitely set to get there Thursday,” he said.
The warm weather has already had an effect on Lake Michigan, as Tuesday was the first day this season that its shoreline waters warmed to 50 degrees.
Tickets for 30-minute cruises were selling briskly at Shoreline Sightseeing on Navy Pier.
“This is a lot easier sell than it would be on a 55-degree day,” said manager Stacy Wiselogel. He had run a 7 p.m. cruise on Monday and planned another evening cruise Tuesday. Normally, such cruises don’t start until mid-May.
While people continued to exult in the record warmth Tuesday, plenty were reaching for the thermostat and some were nursing fresh sunburns. Leah Craig’s back and shoulders had reddened gradually as she sketched in Grant Park and then walked to Navy Pier with friends.
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“The sun doesn’t feel that strong,” said the 19-year-old art student. The song “A Summer Place” blared over a nearby loudspeaker as Craig pulled on a jacket over her orange halter top. But she didn’t need a soundtrack, or a sunburn, to know that winter was finished.
“Summer is here,” she said firmly. “We’re throwing open our windows and changing our diets.
“Popsicles,” Craig said. “Popsicles, smoothies and cold stuff.”
With temperatures near 90 degrees, cold stuff was a priority both indoors and out. ComEd officials were expecting to see a peak electricity use of 14,400 megawatts Tuesday, about 25 percent more than the normal daily use in April.
“Everyone’s flipping on the air conditioner,” ComEd spokeswoman Meg Amato said. “We’re seeing what you typically see in the summer months, not in April.”
Of course, air conditioning wasn’t the only way to keep cool.
Playing under a fountain in front of Navy Pier, 2-year-old Crystal Seabolt couldn’t have been happier in her drenched bathing suit. “This is Chicago. You never know what you’re going to get,” said her grandmother, Dora Seabolt.
Though it might be plenty warm for the next couple of days, thunderstorms are set to roll into the city, bringing with them wind gusts of 20 to 30 m.p.h., Skilling said.
And in time for the weekend, cold northeast air is expected to blow across Lake Michigan on Friday and drop temperatures by some 40 degrees through Saturday and into Sunday.
By Monday, however, the weather may actually feel like April, with the temperature hovering around the 60-degree mark, Skilling said.