Record set Sunday; prepare for a hot Memorial Day
Rain is usually considered the problem child when it comes to Memorial Day weather. But this year, heat could be just as ornery.
Temperatures are expected to soar well past 90 degrees on Monday, a day when many will be outdoors at parades or family barbecues. Sunscreen and lots of water will be musts. (Rain remains a possibility, with forecasters calling for a 30-percent chance by the afternoon hours.)
Still, it's not expected to be as hot as Sunday, when temps broke a 101-year-old record at O'Hare International Airport. The National Weather Service reported Sunday afternoon that temperatures had reached 96 at O'Hare. The previous record had been 94 degrees, which happened in 1911.
“This is definitely an unusual pattern,” said Charles Mott of the National Weather Service's office in Romeoville. “Usually we're in the low- to mid-70s this time of year.”
Sunday's heat made things sweatier than expected for suburbanites enjoying the second day of their three-day weekend. At the Memorial Day Parade that marched in East and West Dundee, spectators tried to squeeze themselves into shady spots as best they could.
“Everybody's taking up every single inch,” West Dundee resident Sue Rynders said. “It's kind of funny.”
Unfortunately for the band members slated to perform in West Dundee's Grafelman Park after the parade, sun was their only option. Beth Wood, the orchestra teacher at Carpentersville Middle School, said her students did her best in the heat.
“We gave them strict instructions to hydrate before they even showed up and we gave them water before, during and after the parade,” Wood said.
In Aurora, more than 100 people participated in the Amped Up Adventure Race, an event that included long stretches of running, biking and canoeing/kayaking in the Fox River. They all gulped water after hitting the finish line.
“The heat didn't help, but it didn't make things miserable, either,” said Carol Stream resident Theresa Rogers. “But we started early, so maybe we missed the worst of it.”
Ÿ Daily Herald staff writer Tara Garcia Mathewson contributed to this article.