Today Could Be The Warmest February 19 Ever

By Emma G. Gallegos in News on Feb 19, 2016 4:10PM

Sunny skies (Photo by Jen Brown via the Chicagoist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)

If you're the type of person who breaks out your shorts and flip flops at the slightest hint of spring, get ready: temperatures could reach a balmy 60 degrees today. And this relative warm spell is expected to continue through the weekend.

The last time it was this warm was in 2009 when it hit 61 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The record for Feb. 19 was 62 degrees in 1981, and Chicago should get "pretty darn close" to that today, meteorologist Kevin Birk tells the Tribune. Some models say it could get as warm as 65 degrees:

It will not be the ideal 60-something degrees—there could be gusts of wind of up to 50 mph. But it's hard to complain about that in February.

Saturday will be less windy than today, and a little cooler, likely in the 50s. And then Monday and Tuesday, forecasters say it will be back to the grind, with temperatures dropping down to the mid-30s. But the rest of the month will see temps around the 40s, meteorologists tell the Trib.

Perhaps El Niño has your back: no more "arctic blasts" are predicted for the rest of February.

Flip flops are probably not a great idea, but you know, you do you: