Meteorologists say winter will not let this sunny aggression stand — they’re predicting a “pneumonia front” to plunge temperatures Thursday afternoon. more ›

We're word-nerds so it should come as no surprise that the Merriem-Webster's Word of the Day podcast is a daily listen for us. What was a surprise is who made an appearance in today's entry! more ›

Skilling was right about today's forecast. more ›

Good Morning, everyone. Don't let the gray skies outside get you down this morning.Even though they're sticking around, there is a promise of rain this morning to go with a projected high of 56 (61 in Skilling-speak). It's actually going to feel like the weather is in the mid-40s throughout the day. Then the wind shifts in from the east, cooling things along the lakefront and downtown. If you're heading to Wrigley Field (where good seats are still available; yesterday's attendance was 27,039) bring rain gear. more ›

Good morning, everyone. Good start to the week yesterday and today is going to be even better. Depending on your forecaster of choice — we're going with Skilling, natch — we're to expect a high of anywhere between the mid-40s to 51 degrees. We would love to see the latter, but the rain starts later this evening, leading to thunderstorms tomorrow. more ›

The Chicago area has a winter weather advisory for this evening, as we're expecting anywhere from one to four inches of snow and/or freezing rain. But that could serve as a prelude to a bigger storm later in the week. For those of you dreaming of a White Christmas, be careful what you wish for. more ›

Sure, our summer has been cooler than usual and the beach-mongers among us are a bit miffed, but if El Niño impacts us enough to give us a warmer than usual winter, as Skilling Says it might, we can deal. more ›

• The Tribune reports Roman Szabelski, executive director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago, has been appointed to take over day-to-day operations of Burr Oak Cemetery in the wake of the horrific discoveries of the past week.
• The Reader's Ben Joravsky checked out the Chicago 2016 neighborhood meeting last night. What did he think? In his words: "I Tried."
• A man from Lombard was sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to set up a dog fight for his pit bull. The Chicagoist Intern does not approve.

Crafts more ›

It's going to be a gorgeous weekend, according to Chicago Weather Godfather Tom Skilling, and both of Chicago's MLB teams are at home for important series. Up on the North Side, the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry (tied at three games apiece this season) is renewed this weekend when Ted Lilly squares off against Braden Looper. The Cubs have been on a hot-streak, winning eight of their last ten and widening their NL Central lead to five games over the Brewers and six over the Cards. Carlos Zambrano is scheduled to take the mound for the Cubs tomorrow while Ryan Dempster will start on Sunday. The current incarnation of the Cubs rotation is 43-23 so far this year. more ›

Chicago Weather Godfather Tom Skilling confirmed that Monday evening's intense storms spawned three tornadoes that produced damage across the Chicago metro area. According to Skilling, Griffith, Indiana was hit by an Enhanced Fujita scale-2 tornado (winds 111-135 m.p.h.) while both Bloomingdale and Bolingbrook were hit by EF1 tornadoes. In addition to the twisters, nearly 2.5 inches of rain fell at O'Hare, already making this the wettest meteorological summer in fifteen years. more ›

When we were kids taking summer road trips down to Florida, it was always somewhat comforting to be able to turn on the TV and see good ol' Tommy Skilling on the WGN Superstation giving the weather reports for the Chicago area. Nowadays on the Superstation, the noon and 9pm newscasts continue to air nationwide, but the Superstation schedule is almost completely different from the local showings. (Sports broadcasts are included in Superstation scheduling as well.) But is the Tribune Company about to kill the call letters? Or maybe get rid of even more than that? Rob Feder seems to think so. [S-T] more ›

You know winter has fully set its icy claws into your heart when you hear "35 degrees" and think "hey, I'll take it!" So run outside now to soak up some rays while they last. It's supposed to get cloudy this afternoon and snow a little tonight, with temperatures dropping the rest of the week and into the weekend. more ›

Typically we like to blame Canada for cold weather fronts, but this week's frigid temps are "flowing all the way from northern Russia," according to Tom Skilling. Wowza! Cold air is currently moving through Alaska and Canada and working its way towards us (purple = really cold on that map), spreading frigid conditions through the region until we bottom out with single-digit highs on Saturday. The National Weather Center says lows might drop as far as 20 degrees below. Gah! There's a slight chance of snow later today, but otherwise we're just looking at brutal, bitter cold for the next week. more ›

If this week’s cold temperatures are any indication of what’s to come, we think we’re headed for a long winter. Today doesn’t provide much much variety, so we’d much rather stay in bed and cozy up with Tom Skilling, who is forecasting a nasty evening for all those office parties that take place tonight. The first of two storm fronts will move into the area this evening, bringing precipitation and wind. According to Tom, the... more ›

So...it's pretty gross out. Super gross. Apparently it hasn't affected flights at O'Hare (yet?), but as temperatures drop over night, the rain will probably turn to snow. It's going to be chilly tomorrow, and it's going to stay cold for most of the weekend. If you're going someplace, get going already! In the mean time, this cartoon turkey is scaring the shit out of us. Must. Cleanse. Brain. Aaaaaaah. Much better. If you've gotta ask,... more ›

One never needs an excuse to drink a selection from Unibroue. We're on record with our claim that the Quebec brewery is the best in North America, and it's because the quality of their brews is unsurpassed and of the highest standard of all we've sampled. Even their entry brews, like La Fin du Monde, would be considered a reserve line for another brewery. Maudite is one of our favorites. We're sticklers for balance: we... more ›

A ridiculously severe storm may be heading our way. A low pressure system is moving over the Plains like it owns the place, and with the "air [being] drawn aloft" strengthening southerly winds, we're looking at one hell of a storm system in our area on Thursday. Severe weather of the regular kind (high winds, heavy rains) could be coupled with severe weather of the not-so-regular kind (tornadoes, armageddon-like hail). What makes this extra-special? Autumn... more ›

That steady wailing sound you may have heard this morning is 45,000 runners freaking out about Sunday’s forecast. For the 30th Chicago Marathon, Tom Skilling is promising record heat with a generous dollop of humidity. Runners, it’s time to dig deep and summon the strength that got you through that 14-mile training run in August or that sweaty half-marathon you conquered last month. To the thousands who fear death or worse this weekend, we say:... more ›

We have several areas of faux expertise. Ones we've gained from many years of watching TV shows on the subjects, reading novels on the subjects, reading news stories on the subjects and just being generally interested in the subjects. These subjects are law, medicine and weather. Needless to say, we've spent many hours with the Weather Channel on in the background. We've even had a favorite Weather Channel meteorologist (Dave Schwartz, anyone?) and we have... more ›

Anyone who is native to the Midwest knows that the weather patterns here are erratic and can significantly vary from day to day, which is why a reliable meteorologist is key to anal types who like to lay out their outfits the night before. Chicagoist is one of those people. And because we’ve been burned by horribly inaccurate forecasts by some local beloved meteorologists, we have set out on a five-week experiment to attempt to... more ›

Despite the city’s reputation for cold, harsh winters, December is often the proverbial calm before the winter storms, with milder temps preceding the brutal cold and drifts of snow in the early part of the year. But guess what? You’ll also have to worry about tornados. more ›

The day before the day before the holiday is just getting started, yet we’re already counting down the hours until we can stuff ourselves silly. To get our minds off the siren call of the Ho Ho Freakout, we’re busy making last-minute travel plans. more ›

It’s been a rough week for the Skillings. Dare we say, a stormy one? more ›

Since Tankboy was so kind as to alert us to the presence of John Hodgman tonight over at Second City for FREE (!!), we headed over there to check that shit out. And we are pleased to note that Mr. Hodgman was everything we wanted him to be -- funny, kind, and gracious. He took questions from the audience via walkie talkie, and later signed everyone's books with genuine affability. And just like anyone who... more ›

Our favorite weatherman, Tom Skilling, who always had the mad skills when it comes to laying down an accurate weather forecast, tells us today by way of the Trib that along with our potential high of 70 degrees, the "wind gusts are to reach 30 m.p.h. at ground level." From boasting about getting the World's Fair 1893, to a headline in the Cleveland Gazette in 1885, there are many different references to Chicago as the... more ›

Chicagoist isn’t much of a romantic, but we don’t mind offering a little help to our more tenderhearted friends. So here, via Mr. Tom Skilling, is a friendly tip: There will be a lunar eclipse tonight, visible over the Lake Michigan waters as the sun sets at 5:51 p.m. more ›

Chicagoist knows that cold weather comes with the territory here, but this is too much. We're outdoing ourself coming up with colorful ways to describe the weather, mostly involving witches' body parts and dirty limericks about Eskimos. A wise old mechanic we knew once called this "Ball knockin' cold." You get the point: it's freaking cold, and if you don't trust our colloquialisms, Tom Skilling says so too. This first week of December is the 6th coldest since 1871. Our average temp of 18.3 degrees is 15 below normal. more ›

Tom Skilling, Weather God, says there will be 3 snowstorms this week that will generate more snow than all of the snow we got in December last year. Not hard to do, since we only got 0.6" of snow last December, but still, we'd like to pretend snow doesn't exist and put it off as long as possible. more ›

Remember those funny little day calendars our parents had during the 80s with words for all those unexplained every day things in life, like the piece of plastic on the end of a shoelace, or the little dance you do when you run into someone and neither one of you can figure out which way to go? They were called Sniglets. Well, there should be a Sniglet for the sound Chicagoist makes when we take our dog outside first thing in the morning and see that it's snowing, something other than "Shit!" And there should be a variation on that word for when snow appears on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Something starting with an F, followed by 30 U's, and ending in CK. more ›