Enjoy your weekend, Chicagoans, because next week it is going get extremely cold out there.
According to meteorologists, an Arctic air blast is set to plummet temperatures below zero in the city of Chicago on Monday and Tuesday. If that actually happens, the city will be dealing with the coldest temperatures ever since late January 2019.
With forecasted lows of minus 7 degrees by Monday night, Amtrak has decided to cancel multiple trains originating or ending in Chicago early next week, including Monday's Empire Builder train leaving the city to cross the northern United States and a separate one heading to Chicago from Spokane.
Before next week, though, we'll get to enjoy a not-so-cold precursor: Today, temperatures are expected to stay in the upper 30s and low 40s—plummeting to the 20s tomorrow and the low-teens on Sunday.
"Overnight Sunday and into Monday, temperatures could drop to minus-5 degrees, with wind chills dropping 15-to-25 degrees below zero across the area, according to forecast models," reports NBC Chicago. "Those lows could be the lowest the city has seen since Jan. 16, 2024, when the low temperature was minus 7 degrees. If things get any colder, then it’ll be the coldest the city of Chicago has seen since Dec. 23, 2022, when the low temperature was minus 8."
Here in Chicago, we are, of course, no strangers to cold weather (we started the year off with a polar vortex, after all!), which is why we're prepared to put on our boots, parkas and gloves and head to the best Chicago bars and restaurants with fireplaces to keep warm at any given moment. We'll see you there!