How often do we see 70-degree weather for the last two weeks of March?

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Dear Tom,

How often do we see 70-degree weather for the last two weeks of March?

Victor McMillen

Dear Victor,

Late-March 70s are welcome harbingers of Chicago’s upcoming warm season. We posed your question to Chicago climatologist and weather historian Frank Wachowski who reported that the city had recorded a high of at least 70 degrees in the last half of March in more than 40 percent of the years (43%) dating back to 1871. The most occurrences were in that historic March 2012, the city’s warmest March on record with nine, with six of those nine days incredibly topping 80.

Last year the city recorded three late-March balmy days-70 on March 16, 73 on the 17th, and 74 on the 21st. The city’s highest temperature in the last half of March was 88 degrees on March 29, 1986.