Chicago gets slapped with cold weather

May 30, 2012

Jewell Washington

Chicago experienced the start of some weather whiplash Wednesday.

Temperatures snapped to below normal after a slew of sunny 90 degree days. Now the National Weather Service forecasts lows into the fifties for the rest of the week.

Gilbert Sebenste, a Northern Illinois University meteorologist, said the cold front is an unusual shock.

“You’re going to be dealing with a storm system that you would typically find in late February or early March,” he said. “Had this occurred about two months earlier we probably would have had a blizzard here.”

Sebenste said the cold front is pulling down chilly winds from Canada and cold waters off of Lake Michigan. That means no more tank tops or shorts for a few days.

But Sebenste did forecast a bright spot: Chicagoans should expect normal temperatures of about 80 degrees to return next week.