Temps below zero, with highs struggling to meet double digits Wednesday

Anyone who has driven down highway 30 by Aurora Municipal Airport in Sugar Grove sees how it sits in a "bowl" relative to the rest of the countryside. 

Since cold air sinks, this location is almost always the coldest spot in Chicagoland. This morning is no exception. As of this writing the temperature at ARR airport is a mind-numbing -19° with a wind chill of -34°!

The rest of Chicagoland is between about -1° and -7° with wind chills around -20°.  Like yesterday, the day will feature uninterrupted sunshine with highs struggling out of the single digits and sub-zero wind chills all day.  

It’s the kind of cold that causes malfunction in all kinds of things. The doors to the Naperville Metra train station were locked and frozen. Commuters arriving for the early morning BNSF trains had to wait outdoors and kept moving to combat the cold

That door issue was resolved when another door issue happened on the train. The doors did not close until the eastbound train started moving down the tracks. There were 30 -40 minute delays on some Metra lines, caused by cold weather.

Tonight, temperatures will fall off quickly but begin to level off and likely climb toward daybreak, so tomorrow morning will be nowhere near as cold as today. The day will feature more cloud cover and a possible afternoon flurry with a high around 30°.  

The last time Chicago was this cold was Feb. 7 of last year when temperatures reached minus 7 degrees, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Birk. Temperatures dipped again to minus 5 on Feb. 14.

Just three years ago, in 2019, the city recorded a Jan. 25 with a temperature of minus 6 degrees. The record low for this date is minus 16 set in 1897.

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The main concern snowfall-wise arrives toward Friday morning, when a band of lake-effect snow develops.  It’s too early to pinpoint where that will be but there very well could be several inches of snow with travel impacts especially during the morning commute. 

Today marks the anniversary of the worst blizzard in Chicago history.  Jan 26-27, 1967 saw a record 23.0" fall.  I’ll share my personal memory as a child during this storm on the news today and on social media.  

The forecast from the weather bureau that came out at 3:45 p.m. on the day before the storm hit read like this: Thursday… cloudy with rain or snow likely. High in the 30s. Northeast to east winds 10-18mph.  Chance of precipitation 50 percent.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.