Chicago May Not Have Many Pleasant Days But We Know How To Seize Them
By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 11, 2014 4:10PM
One of the running jokes about summer in Chicago is how fleeting the season fits between the final cold snap and the onset of autumn. The harsh truth behind that rib is how it’s supported by weather records.
Designer, software engineer and blogger Kelly Norton took NOAA weather records from the past 23 years and mapped them to determine the average number of “pleasant” weather days in a calendar year—”pleasant” in this case meaning day where the official temperature is between 55 degrees and 75 degrees. Chicago averages 74 “pleasant” weather days a year, the majority of them coming between May and October.
The results, I think, are not that surprising and pretty much affirm the answer given off the cuff by many of my west coast friends when asked about the best places, ‘Southern California?’ For the areas with the least pleasant days, I admit I would have guessed North Dakota. However, it’s much of Montana that gets an average of a couple of weeks of pleasantness each year.”
What we’re saying is now would be the time to start washing your summer clothes and have them ready for Memorial Day. Be optimistic with the expected thaw next week but don’t go overboard and don cargo shorts and Teva sandals. The pleasant weather will come and, given the winter we’ve endured, it’s understandable some would want to get a head start.
Play around with Norton's interactive map—you can search it by ZIP code—and avoid any temptation to wish for California to become Arizona Bay in the near future.