More Top Picks Best Blue Light Glasses For Students
Seven years ago, Art Slowinski and two of his children spent most of Halloween driving around in a heated car and looking at decorations instead of trick-or-treating because it was so cold and snowy.
“I do remember spending a great amount of time bundling them up and getting their costumes up and over, because they really wanted to see, let people know what they were,” said Slowinski, who lives in Elmhurst. “And then just going out, and hitting a couple doors, and their noses running, and I think they just kinda felt like they had enough rather quickly.”
The kids only lasted walking about 20 or 30 minutes, he said.
Parents won’t have to worry about frostbite this year. Saturday’s forecast is wet and warm, said Brett Borchardt, senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
While Halloween temperatures can vary greatly in Chicago — from 84 degrees in 1950 to 25 in 2019 — experts say the area is likely to see higher temperatures overall in the future due to man-made climate change.
According to Borchardt, there may be thunderstorms and showers in the area early in the day, but conditions will mostly dry out by trick-or-treating time.
“So from daybreak to, call it noon, we think with each hour that goes on after noon, the chances of rain should be decreasing,” Borchardt said. Temperatures are forecast to be around 60 degrees, he said, dropping to 55 in the evening.
That would be significantly warmer than most Halloweens in Chicago, according to data from the National Weather Service’s Chicago office going back to 1871. Only about 18.7% of Halloweens saw lows in the 50s or above, while just 38% hit highs in the 50s or above.
Notable weather of the past
Slowinski said he never thought about the weather growing up. He lived in the Pavilion Apartments, a complex next to O’Hare International Airport. He and his friends would spend their Halloweens entirely inside, walking down hallways and knocking on doors.
“We were almost exclusively inside and came away with huge bags of candy, so it was nice to live there, because you didn’t really have to brace the elements, and you can get a lot done in a very short time,” Slowinski said.
In 2019, Slowinski and his kids experienced the snowiest Halloween in Chicago on record, according to weather service data.
“There were a couple bonfires that a couple neighbors, that we have down the street, they were kind of outside for a little while, but it was the same thing,” he said. “I think we just realized nobody was out.”
Highs that day only reached 33 degrees, and the area was hit with 3.4 inches of snow. It was one of only three recorded times it has snowed in Chicago on Halloween, and both other instances saw less than an inch.
Other notable Halloweens include 1950: the only recorded time Oct. 31 got into the 80s. Tribune archival photos show shirtless men splashing around at the North Avenue Beach.
There was also 1994: the wettest Halloween on record. At O’Hare, 2.26 inches of rain fell that day. An inch or more of rain has only occurred four times since 1871, according to the weather service.
Warmer Octobers
In Chicago, fall is the second fastest-warming season after winter, according to climate science nonprofit Climate Central.
Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford said inconsistent weather on Halloween isn’t anything new. As the sun begins to set earlier and autumn advances, he said atmospheric conditions can be all over the place when comparing years.
More Top Picks Best Wavemaster Freestanding Bags For Kickboxing
“Because the poles, the North Pole, is starting to really cool down, we can get the mixture of the air that can make for some really interesting weather events, including winter, what we consider winter weather,” Ford said.
Octobers are overall warmer than they used to be, he said, meaning we’re more likely to get weather similar to this year on Halloween. But those are trends averaged over many years. The day-to-day weather will still be much more variable, Ford said, and future Halloweens may not mirror the Earth’s warming.
“It makes it more likely that we get some of those warmer conditions for Halloween. It doesn’t mean that we still can’t get the very cold conditions, the winter weather, the snow, if we get the right weather conditions,” he said.
Temperatures will remain mostly mild until a series of storms move through northern Illinois next week, Borchardt said, bringing cool temperatures afterward.
“This stretch of warm weather we’ve been enjoying is going to come to an end pretty soon,” he said.
Unrelated to the weather, Borchardt also noted this year’s fall time change will occur at 2 a.m. on Sunday, when clocks will fall back an hour.
Despite some possible rain, Slowinski is excited for this year’s Halloween. With the warmer weather and the holiday falling on a Saturday, he expects more kids will show up at his door.
“I think what I’m really appreciating is the color of the trees and the leaves not being gone,” Slowinski said. “It’s very picturesque being outside, where I kind of remember a lot of other Halloweens, where either we’ve had heavy winds or earlier frost.”
Tribune reporter Kori Rumore contributed.