More heat’s on the way. Temperatures and humidities will remain comfortable Saturday, thanks in part to easterly winds off Lake Michigan. But, with the ninth weekend of meteorological summer 2005 underway, the area is bracing for a new round of hot weather. A huge, rain-free dome of hot air continues to develop across the nation’s mid-section. Readings soared above 100° in parts of the Plains Friday, and this hot air is to begin building eastward.
Though daytime highs here won’t be as extreme as last Sunday’s 102°, surging humidities promise to make the five days of 90s predicted Sunday through Thursday rather uncomfortable: Gulf Coast-level dew points near 70° on the hottest of those days may send heat indexes near 100°.
Six of eight summer weekends this season have posted temperature surpluses, averaging nearly 5 degrees above normal. It’s likely this weekend will become the seventh to finish above normal.

Chicagoans are treated to another day of comfortable temperatures and humidities Friday. The day’s strengthening NE winds off Lake Michigan—and of Canadian origin—limit highs in all but far west and south suburban areas to levels below the normal high of 84°.
For a second consecutive day Thursday, the afternoon high (79°) here failed to reach 80°. In a summer with temperature stats which have so consistently been on the high end of the spectrum, it’s little surprise this summer’s tally of just 11 days in the 70s (26 is the long-term average since 1871 by this date) is so rare. Only two of the past 135 years—1944 and 1949, with 10 and nine days of 70s respectively—have produced fewer “cool” daytime summer highs.
The chill was more evident in the upper Midwest early Thursday. There, morning lows dipped to 38° at Tower and 44° at Embarrass—both in Minnesota.

It was the East Coast rather than sections of the Midwest which baked in record triple-digit heat Wednesday. For the first time in weeks, temperatures backed away from the 90s and 100s across the nation’s heartland. The dramatic pullback included Chicago’s September-level 74° high at O’Hare—the city’s lowest daytime high in nearly six weeks. It hasn’t been cooler here since 71° on June 18. The retreat was especially noticeable in a summer over which daily highs have finished, by a margin of nearly 6 to 1, above rather than below normal. The nearly two-month period since June 1 now ranks 6th warmest of all comparable periods on record here since 1871. It is also the 7th driest June 1-July 28 period in that 135 year span—and that’s with Tuesday’s beneficial rains included.
The heat was intense to the east Wednesday. Record highs included 100° at New York’s La Guardia Airport, 101° at Newark, N.J., and 102° at Raleigh, N.C.