Gloomy skies on Monday chilled the usual Fourth of July heat, but they won’t mask the night’s fireworks.
“In terms of cloud cover, there’s definitely a good chance for it to linger around into the evening, right around the fireworks’ time frame,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Rodriguez.
But because the swath of gray sky is expected to remain high off the ground, he said, “it shouldn’t hinder that visibility too much.”
Temperatures will stay in the low 70s throughout the day and night, Rodriguez said, on a day when the high historically reaches 84 degrees.
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Still, celebration organizers are anticipating hordes will flock to Chicago’s shoreline Monday evening regardless of weather conditions, drawn to the city’s only lakefront fireworks show like moths to crackling, dazzling fits of light.
Melrose Pyrotechnics, the Indiana-based company behind Navy Pier’s Fourth of July fireworks, will kick off its biggest show of the year at 9:30 p.m. sharp. In the hours leading up to the show, most of the display’s preparations were already complete, said Bob Kerns, the company’s director of operations.
Over the past few months, he said, a team of engineers has spent close to 60 hours orchestrating Navy Pier’s 15-minute celebration. Most of that work involved carefully synchronizing each of the show’s 4,000 to 5,000 individual effects with specific crescendos, cymbal crashes and riffs.
“The music dictates the work, (so) every program is quite labor-intensive,” he said. “We’re already working on next year’s Fourth of July.”
It’s by far Melrose Pyrotechnics’ busiest season. Kerns said the company puts on about 300 fireworks displays during the week of Fourth of July, Kerns said.
“New Year’s will never even come close,” he said.
The month around the July Fourth holiday also tallies the highest number of fireworks-related injuries in the U.S.
Last year, the month accounted for more than two-thirds of the more than 10,000 fireworks-related injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
On Sunday afternoon, Bridgeview canceled its fireworks show after one prematurely detonated. A pyrotechnician was hospitalized with burns to his hands and arms. Those fireworks were not provided by Melrose Pyrotechnics.
To accommodate the influx of traffic, CTA has additional rail and bus service along routes serving Navy Pier, the Loop and lakefront areas. Event organizers said once Navy Pier reaches its capacity, the site will close its gates.
In honor of the upcoming Olympics — which begin Aug. 5 in Rio de Janeiro — Navy Pier’s fireworks will kick off in “Olympic spirit,” Kerns said, and will also feature country music and Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.” Despite the intensive preparation involved, the explosive nature of Kerns’ work means he won’t see it come to fruition until the public does.
“We can watch a computer screen of just data and know exactly what it will look like — or pretty darn close to what it will look like,” he said, “but there’s no way of knowing for sure until you actually see it live.”
Twitter @MarionRenault