High temperature Monday hits 85 degrees, surpassing record set in 2008

Temperatures at O’Hare International Airport hit 85 degrees on Monday afternoon, officially breaking the Chicago area’s record high for the date.

It was on Oct. 12, 2008, that the city experienced the now-surpassed record of 84-degree weather.

Farther north in Rockford, temperatures Monday also broke an 18-year-old record by two degrees, reaching 87, weather officials said.

The National Weather Service office in Chicago said temperatures could continue to warm through the afternoon, so the final record high would be shared later in the day.

The normal high temperatures for the date in the Chicago and Rockford areas are 65 and 64 degrees, respectively, according to National Weather Service historical data.

Local meteorologists had forecast near-record temperatures across the state for Monday and Tuesday. Chicago’s record high temperature for Oct. 13 was 88 degrees in 1975.

Trends in recent decades point to an overall warming of average temperatures in winter as well as fall, spring and summer, from human activities such as fossil-fuel burning that release heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

In Chicago, fall is the second fastest-warming season after winter, according to climate science nonprofit Climate Central.

An analysis from the organization found that as of 2025, Chicago was experiencing 15 more fall days with higher-than-normal temperatures compared with 1970, while average autumn temperatures have increased by 2.8 degrees in that same time span. It mirrors a 2.9-degree average rise in 241 of 245 major U.S. cities analyzed.

adperez@chicagotribune.com