Record-breaking cold arrives Tuesday; below average temps to linger until next week

Tuesday’s high of 22 should easily break the record for the coldest high on Nov. 12, which was set in 1995 when temperatures peaked at 28 degrees.

SHARE Record-breaking cold arrives Tuesday; below average temps to linger until next week
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Early morning commuters brace against the cold as they wait for buses outside Union Station Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.

Rich Hein/Sun-Times

Chicagoans woke to snow Monday.

On Tuesday, the morning brought record-breaking cold.

It’s a one-two punch to be sure, but this city knows how to take an icy jab.

“We kind of got slammed in the face around Halloween already,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Kevin Donofrio said of the cold and snow that greeted trick-or-treaters. “People have already had to break out the winter coats and gloves. And they’ll need them again — it’s not the time to mess around.”

A recorded temperature of 7 degrees at O’Hare Tuesday morning broke a record low set in 1986, the weather service said. Wind chills throughout the area greeted early risers at levels well below 0 degrees.

And Tuesday’s high of 22 should easily break the record for the coldest high on Nov. 12, which was set in 1995 when temperatures peaked at 28 degrees.

The normal high is about 50 degrees. 

Temperatures dropped to 14 degrees Monday night, breaking a record low temperature of 15 degrees set in 1950, the weather service said.

A warmup isn’t expected until next week, when temperatures are expected to climb back into the 40s. 

A blast of arctic air from Northern Canada is to blame for the cold spell.

“It’s nothing new, it’s just earlier. These are temperatures you’d be more likely to see in January,” Donofrio said.

Except for a dusting of snow Wednesday, no snow is expected over the next few days — good news, considering the three inches that fell Monday and caused an airplane to slide off a runway at O’Hare (no one was injured).

Existing snow, like a refrigerator, will further chill air near the ground and reflect sunlight that otherwise would heat up the ground. 

Phil Kwiatkowski, president of the Pacific Garden Mission, the city’s largest homeless shelter at 1458 S. Canal St., hopes the cold doesn’t catch the city’s most vulnerable off guard.

“We have beds for 900, but we can put mattresses on the floor,” he said. The shelter has been averaging about 600 a night, but Kwiatkowski expects Tuesday’s cold will swell that number by about 150.

“Please remember people who are out on the streets,” he said, noting that donations of coats, hats and gloves and new underwear are always needed this time of year. 

Public buildings will be converted to warming centers across Cook County in anticipation of the frigid weather, officials said.

Not everyone is dreading the change in weather, especially the small group of surfers who think with glee of the big waves that will accompany the cold.

“This is the time of year when my Spidey senses tingle; I’m ready to go,” said Bryan McDonald, who’s been surfing Lake Michigan since 1986. McDonald, 52, plans to catch sunrise waves near the Illinois-Indiana border before heading to his construction job.

He hopes to surf for about two hours and catch as many as 20 waves. Ideal rides on a 10 foot wave can last more than 10 seconds, he said.

The cold-weather surfing community in Chicago comprises about 150 individuals, mostly guys, but a few women, too, he said.

McDonald said his standard response to people who tell him he’s nuts is, “Yeah, I am. I know that.”

Contributing: Sun-Times staff

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