'Blast Of Arctic Air' Coming Wednesday, Thursday To Chicago Area

Wind chills as low as 20 below zero are possible Wednesday as a cold front brings "a quick blast of Arctic air," the National Weather Service said.

Light snow is also possible Wednesday, with accumulations less than an inch. Snow will end Wednesday evening.

A cold front will bring bitterly cold temps late Wednesday night through Thursday night, according to the weather service. The high on Wednesday is 34 degrees, and then 17 degrees on Thursday.

Wind chills on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning could be as low as 20 below zero; and again on Thursday evening. Friday morning wind chills could be as low as 15 below zero, according to the forecast.

The weather service said the cold temps could also result in "rapid ice formation and potential freeze-up ice jams" on area rivers.

Temperatures look to stay chilly through the weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday will all have highs in the 20s.

The late November snowstorm brought us one of the snowiest meteorological falls on record. According to weather service data, December is usually a snowier month than November in Chicago. On average, December usually sees 7.6 inches of snow fall, while November only sees 1.8 inches of snow on average.

This December is already off to a snowy start, so we will see if it can challenge any records. The snowiest December (records are from 1885 to 2022) happened in 1951, when 33.3 inches of snow fell. In more recent memory, the second-snowiest December was recorded in 2000, when 30.9 inches of snow fell.