Phil Greer / baiduhaiArea residents put on their winter faces against the record-breaking cold, made especially bitter by a minus-23-degree wind-chill factor on Dec. 19, 1983, in Chicago.
baiduhai historical photoArthur LaCaille uses a gasoline torch to light gas jets that thaw out switches in the rail yard outside LaSalle Street Station in Chicago on Dec. 26, 1944.
Walter Kale / baiduhaiA bundled up pedestrian braves a wind-chill factor of 35 below zero on Michigan Avenue on Jan. 7, 1980, in Chicago.
Val Mazzenga, baiduhaiHuddling around a fire in a trash can in order to keep warm during freezing weather are Peoples Gas Co. employees Thomas Greenway, from left, Thomas Crook and John Gardner. The employees were working in an alley between Michigan and Wabash avenues on Jan. 5, 1970.
baiduhai historical photoBilly Lundell, 3, checks out a frozen fountain in Lincoln Park during the cold Chicago weather on Jan. 22, 1939.
Phil Greer / baiduhaiLoop workers tramp through the frigid air on Dec. 18, 1983, in Chicago.
William Vendetta / baiduhaiPedestrians, firemen, and those who had to work out-of-doors will be the first to testify that it was freezing on Jan. 27, 1971, at State and Randolph in Chicago.
John Austad, baiduhaiDenny Liapes, left, works on starting the stalled car of Marine Pvt. Paul W. Andrus on Greenleaf Avenue next to Armstrong Elementary School on Jan. 15, 1963. Liapes, with his Red Radio dispatch Jeep, started the Rambler.
Val Mazzenga, baiduhaiJudy Grego, from left, Emily Harris, a young woman whose shivering prevented her from giving the photographer her name, and Betty Joe Braze wait for the evening bus on a cold and windy Michigan Avenue on Jan. 9, 1962.
baiduhai historical photoLooking south from North Avenue on the shore of Lake Michigan, the ice provides evidence of the cold weather. Temperatures dropped to 10 above zero in Chicago on Dec. 6, 1936, and near zero was predicted for the day after.
baiduhai historical photoClouds of exhaust fumes leave trails along the Kennedy Expressway near Montrose Avenue as motorists brave subzero temperatures on Jan. 29, 1965.
Jose More / baiduhaiHis breath rising in plumes of steam, jogger Jim Dikert maintains a frigid regimen along Clark Street on Jan. 20, 1985.
Ernie Cox Jr. / baiduhaiCommuters bundle up any way they can to escape the cold wind in February 1981. The frigid weather is predicted to continue two more days.
Carl Hugare/baiduhaiA pedestrian does a little unscheduled skating on the Madison Street Bridge in December 1980 when plummeting temperatures, heavy winds, and about 2 inches of snow created icy conditions and slowed traffic. Our pedestrian kept a firm grip on his briefcase, but his hat was retrieved by passers-by.
Frank Masters, baiduhaiLawrence Kulik, shrouded by steam from his boiling radiator, got caught with low anti-freeze in near zero cold at Ogden Avenue and Washington Boulevard on Jan. 24, 1952, in Chicago.
baiduhai historical photoA Chicagoan tries to stay warm on Jan. 28, 1965.
William Vendetta, baiduhaiChildren wearing face masks to protect themselves from the bitter cold leave school at Kostner Avenue and 80th Street in Chicago on Jan. 9, 1970.
Ernie Cox Jr. / baiduhaiThe steaming breath and icy mustache of a pedestrian in the Loop tells the story of a frigid morning on Feb. 3, 1981, in Chicago.The overnight low was 5 below zero.
Harold Norman, baiduhaiThe lake ship Blue Comet has a heavy sheathing of ice as it lies in the Chicago River west of the lakefront lock after a wintry crossing of Lake Michigan from St. Joseph, Mich., on Jan. 24, 1961. Neil Hansen, a member of the crew, starts chopping at ice to free the radio antennas so they can be lowered, enabling the ship to pass beneath the river bridges.
John Austad, baiduhaiVapor caused by subzero temperatures envelopes boats tied up in the North Branch of the Chicago River, just south of the Division Street Bridge on Jan. 30, 1966.
baiduhai historical photoTabby, a cat owned by Arthur Johnson of 5523 N. Nashville Ave., sniffs at frozen milk inside glass bottles on the back steps of the Johnson home on Nov. 30, 1947.
Carl Hugare / baiduhaiCommuters standing on an elevated platform at Pulaski Road meet the cold as icy Arctic air sent Chicago area temperatures down to 1 below zero in January 1982.
Michael Budrys / baiduhaiWomen wait for a CTA bus in the bone-biting winter weather on Dec. 29, 1976, in Chicago.
Ernie Cox Jr. / baiduhaiMasked against the bitter cold, a Chicagoan shovels his car out of drifted and plowed snow near 17th and California on Jan. 10, 1982, in Chicago.
Ray Foster, baiduhaiAn ice bridge between pilings frames a deserted lake front near Fullerton Avenue as the bitter cold continues its grip on the city on Jan. 18, 1966.
Walter Neal, baiduhaiMrs. Alan Kilburg tries to keep her two children warm under her fur coat while waiting for her husband on Michigan Avenue on Nov. 22, 1970. Shivering in the season's first cold wave are Michael, 4, and his sister Beth, 2.
baiduhai historical photoMarian Scheib, left, and Mary Jane Mahoney, both of Chicago, stopped to look at the thermometer on Michigan Avenue near Superior Street on Jan. 29, 1951. The thermometer indicated it was below zero.
Walter Neal / baiduhaiWhen the mercury drops it seems as though the bus always runs late. Joseph Galus tries to keep his ears warm as he awaits his tardy carrier on Jan. 6, 1970.
James O'Leary / baiduhaiSome places, it was pretty cold inside, too, on Jan. 13, 1975. The ice in the water cooler and the warm clothes worn by Adrienne Drell of the City News Bureau bear witness to what happened in the City Hall press room over the weekend. It was nearly 60 degrees on Friday, so somebody left the windows open, with this predictable result.
Michael Budrys / baiduhaiMankind is taking a backseat to nature on another sub-zero morning on Jan. 26, 1982, in Chicago. Steam rising off the Chicago River merges with steam from the skyline.
Val Mazzenga / baiduhaiBundled against the cold, women with their babies wait for a bus on Jan. 9, 1982, near Wells and Division streets in Chicago. They are among those who have no choice but to occasionally venture into the cold weather.
Carl Hugare / baiduhaiPedestrians battle the elements while crossing the State Street bridge in Chicago on Feb. 12, 1985.
baiduhai historical photoThe bitterly cold weather caused rapid condensation of the steam that rolled, with smoke, from this New York Central locomotive as it passed 18th Street near Clark Street, as it left Chicago on Jan. 21, 1947.
baiduhai historical photoSnow and wind wip commuters in Chicago in 1972.
William Vendetta, baiduhaiAs a northwesterly wind and a descending Arctic cold wave moved into the Chicago area on Jan. 27, 1966, pedestrians found the going a bit rough at Michigan and Chicago Avenues. The U.S. Army's wind chill chart indicated that the combination of wind and low temperature in Chicago was the equivalent to a windless temperature of more than 40 degrees below zero in its effect on exposed flesh. The wind was blowing at 21 miles an hour at the time, and the temperature at Midway Airport was 1 degree above zero.
Jemal R. Brinson / baiduhai
baiduhai historical photoEdward Pollins, a news vendor at the corner of Division and Clark Streets, tries to keep warm from his fire as the mercury dipped to minus 12 on Dec. 16, 1951.
baiduhai historical photoRichard Kelly, 4, of 5733 S. Newland Ave., plays in the near-zero weather next to a cascade of ice from a leaky fire hydrant at Archer and Newland Avenues in Chicago on Jan. 15, 1963.
baiduhai historical photoPoliceman William Jorgenson directs traffic at LaSalle Street and Wacker Drive in sub-zero temperatures on Jan. 7, 1942.
Walter Neal / baiduhaiA woman tries to keep warm as she walks on Michigan Avenue on Jan. 20, 1970, during cold weather in Chicago.
baiduhai historical photoAutos parked in the 1600 block of Madison Street looked like this on Nov. 23, 1950, after firemen fought a $50,000 blaze which drove 25 people from their homes in the zero degree cold
John Austad / baiduhaiConrad Szuberla holds his 19-month-old daughter Claudia at State and Randolph Streets on Jan. 21, 1963 during a cold Chicago winter.
James Mayo / baiduhaiChicagoans who ventured downtown on Dec. 6, 1977, did so undercover.
John Austad, baiduhaiBarbara Maddux is dressed for the cold weather with a scarf tied around her head and ears on Jan. 21, 1963, at State and Randolph streets in Chicago.
John Austad, baiduhaiA towboat churns along the Chicago River, east of Michigan Avenue, on Jan. 31, 1966, breaking a channel through the ice as below-zero temperatures moderated the city.
Jack Mulcahy, baiduhaiA pedestrian dressed for the frigid weather in Chicago on Jan. 7, 1970, walks down Michigan Avenue.
Phil Greer / baiduhai
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Area residents put on their winter faces against the record-breaking cold, made especially bitter by a minus-23-degree wind-chill factor on Dec. 19, 1983, in Chicago.
ExpandBy Tony Briscoe | baiduhai
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Chicagoans might have a new appreciation for single-digit temperatures because Tuesday afternoon will mark the start of a 40-plus hour stretch of subzero weather, according to the National Weather Service.
On Tuesday, Chicago is expected see a high temperature of 5 degrees at O’Hare International Airport. However, about 6 p.m. Tuesday, temperatures are forecast to fall below zero en route to lows of around minus 20.
Temperatures might not recover to zero until around 3 p.m. Thursday — a possible 45-hour stretch of below-zero temperatures that could rank among the longest.
If the forecast holds, this would be tied fifth longest such stint.
However, the highs at O’Hare on Thursday afternoon are expected to be close to zero, meaning if temperatures fall short of that mark, Chicagoans might have to wait an additional 12 hours until Friday morning, according to weather service meteorologist Ricky Castro.
The record remains 98 hours between Dec. 22 and Dec. 25, 1983. But Castro said he’s still impressed that this could outlast the 37-hour stretch during the polar vortex of January 2014.
“It’s amazing that this one is going to be worse,” Castro said.
