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Staff report3:43 a.m. CDT, July 6, 2012
Temperatures across the region are expected to hit 100 degrees for the third day in a row, shattering the daily high temperature record for July 6 and tying decades-old records for most days in a row above that temperature.Friday’s high is forecast anywhere between 100 and 105 degrees with a heat index between 105 and 115, National Weather Service Meteorologist Tim Seeley said. The record is 99 degrees, set in 1988.
“It’s a pretty good bet we’re going to set a record high for the third day in a row,” he said.
That would tie another record – only two other times in Chicago’s history have temperatures surpassed 100 degrees and tied or surpassed record high temperatures three days in a row – from July 3-5 in 1911 and August 4-6 in 1947.
Wednesday’s high of 102 matched the record high set in 1911 and the high of 103 on Thursday surpassed a record of 102, also in 1911. Friday’s temperatures will flirt with the all-time high temperature in Chicago – 105 degrees in 1934 – but passing that mark isn’t likely, Seeley said.
And if temperatures hit 100 Saturday, it would set a new record. Highs Saturday are forecast between 95 and 100 degrees, Seeley said.
Some relief could come for downtown and north of downtown in the form of a lake breeze Friday afternoon but area-wide temperatures aren’t supposed to drop significantly until Saturday night, when a front is expected to drop temperatures into the mid 70s and low 80s by Sunday morning.
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