Publications & Sites 
Final day of heat wave approaching record
Related Stories
Updated: October 24, 2012 10:09PM
The final day of a three-day heat wave that has scorched the area remains a couple degrees short of breaking the record high temperature for the day.
The mercury climbed to 99 degrees at O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday afternoon — one degree shy of the all-time record of 100 degrees set on July 17, 1942, according to the National Weather Service. The heat index at O’Hare hit 106 just before 3 p.m.
About 5 p.m., it was 98 degrees at O’Hare and Midway, 95 degrees in West Chicago, 98 degrees in Wheeling and Waukegan, and 99 degrees in Gary, Ind.
O’Hare, which is Chicago’s official recording station, has already had temperatures of 100 degrees or higher four separate times this year.
The weather service is predicting a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10 p.m., when a heat advisory is set to expire.
The temperature is expected to fall to 74 degrees early Wednesday, when a west a southwest wind will shift to northeast wind blowing at 5 to 10 mph, the weather service said.
The high temperatures are expected to range between 86 and 90 degrees the rest of the week with a chance of thunderstorms Wednesday and Thursday, according to the weather service.
Temperatures had been 10 to 15 degrees above normal from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic during the heat wave, the weather service said.
