CHICAGO — Don't put away those light jackets yet.
Despite a blast of winter weather that made for frigid commutes and grumbling about another Polar Vortex, warmer temperatures are on the horizon, according to AccuWeather.
The cold snap was due to cold air that built over Siberia's snowpack and blew south and into Canada, said AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok.
"The cold air just kept coming," he said. "It set the stage for significant, record-breaking cold in the United States, about three weeks ahead of schedule."
In Chicago, that meant a cold spell that was among the longest the area has seen since 1920, according to the National Weather Service. Only five other weeks had seen longer stretches of sub-40-degree temperatures for this long so early. The last time Chicago experienced such an early freeze was Nov. 9-16, 1996, the service said.
But we're in for a bit of a thaw, with temperatures AccuWeather called "springlike" — but maybe more like early spring. AccuWeather predicts weekend highs in the high 40s, with the city seeing temperatures 4 to 7 degrees warmer than normal in the next few days, AccuWeather said.
But it'll be short lived. Temperatures will drop into the mid-30s by early next week. We could see some snow on Thanksgiving, the service said.
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