Evanston residents should brace for the coldest weather of the year next week, with temperatures dipping below zero for days on end.
Former WFLD-TV (Ch. 32) meteorologist and current Loyola Prof. Richard DiMaio said the iciest weather of the year is likely to hit Jan. 20-23, with another cold snap looming Jan. 25-27.
DiMaio said this winter feels colder than last year because of 2024’s warmer winter. Higher temperatures resulted from the El Niño weather phenomenon, which brought more heat to the east Pacific.
“The only reason why it’s probably feeling a little bit colder than normal is because the year 2024 was not only the warmest year on Earth, it was also the warmest year in the city of Chicago,” he said. “It’s pretty easy, when you go from the warmest winter ever to like a near normal winter, that you’re going to be cold.”
Despite growing up in the Midwest, SESP junior Lea Kalkowski said she is taken aback every time she returns for Winter Quarter.
“Every year you come back, you forget how cold it is, and then you come in January and you’re just shocked all over again,” Kalkowski said.
Temperatures have averaged a couple of degrees below the typical mid-January, with the upcoming week bringing temperatures 5 to 10 degrees below normal, according to DiMaio.
The frosty weather coincides with the arrival of La Niña, a climatic phenomenon that brings colder surface temperatures along the equatorial Pacific that largely brings the opposite effects of El Niño.
The city will also experience the edge of the polar vortex moving from the North Pole, which DiMaio said is a spinning column of cold air that occasionally breaks off and moves further out.
“We’re not going to see the heart of the polar vortex,” he said. “We’re just going to see the southern periphery of that.”
Bryan Ohanes, who manages the downtown Evanston CVS, has lived in the Midwest for over 20 years. He said while there have been warmer winters, this January is not unlike what Evanston has seen before.
Yet he said there is a noticeable difference in the amount of snowfall despite equally cool temperatures.
“Usually we have snow on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but these last three years, no snow,” he said.
DiMaio said meteorologists think Chicago-area snowfall will not remain on the ground for as long as in previous years, hurting businesses that generate revenue from winter sports and hunting throughout the season.
La Niña typically brings greater snowfall — an effect of warmer temperatures in the preceding months followed by normal cooling in December and January — although DiMaio said the overall warmer atmosphere causes the snow to quickly melt.
Extremely low temperatures have an economic impact because shoppers are disincentivized to go outside. Ohanes said there is less foot traffic on Sherman Avenue, so his CVS makes less sales than in the summer months.
Some outings are unavoidable. Kalkowlski has no choice but to suit up in her knee-length sleeping-bag jacket, a scarf, hat and gloves to get around campus.
“You have to go to class, so every morning when I wake up, I just pray that I’m not going to freeze on my way there,” she said.
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