CHICAGO — Chicagoans may want to bundle up during their Thanksgiving travels.
After a relatively mild start to the week, temperatures will begin plunging by mid-week, with Thanksgiving day on Thursday forecast to have a high temperature near freezing, according to the National Weather Service.
Monday and Tuesday will see highs in the mid to upper-50s, but temperatures will begin to dip Wednesday, when it may only reach 40 degrees in the area, the weather service’s Chicago outpost said in its five-day outlook.
Temperatures could top out at 35 degrees Thursday alongside breezy conditions, according to the forecast.
The weather forecast for Thanksgiving week. Credit: National Weather Service
Besides a “cold shot” that brought the city’s first snowfall Nov. 9, temperatures have run 2 degrees “notably above normal” this month, said Todd Kluber, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
A jet steam that wouldn’t buckle gifted the city warmer air from the Pacific Ocean. But now, as winter approaches, the weather will be “spilling its way down” from Canada and the Arctic, Kluber said.
This year’s Thanksgiving takes place on Nov. 27, which has an average high temperature of 43 degrees, according to the weather service. This year’s temperature is forecast to be significantly below average.
“As a whole, it looks like a persistent winter pattern is setting up,” Kluber said.
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