Today's forecast for the city of Chicago is expected to be a whopping 38 degrees. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Chicago is anticipating rain and snow.

In comparison, St. Petersburg will see partly cloudy skies early this week and highs in the mid 70s. By the weekend, it's expected to be sunny and clear.

Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, Pinellas County's tourism agency, doesn't want to just rub it in, it wants the people of Chicago to get their butts to the beach.

Visit St. Pete-Clearwater is partnering with Uber, the ride-sharing company, in Chicago this month to offer free rides to users in Chicago on "Warm Up Wednesdays." Four Uber cars will be wrapped completely in bright and sunny advertisements showing off Clearwater Beach and St. Petersburg throughout the month of February. They'll have the agency's virtual reality goggles inside the cars so riders can take a quick 360-degree tour of Pinellas County's most famous attractions. Some drivers will give away T-shirts.

An additional 30 drivers in the Chicago area will have ads on the outside of their cars every Wednesday of the month.

On the app, riders will be prompted to book a special Visit St. Pete-Clearwater Uber car that will be specially marked with a sunshine icon on Wednesdays. The free rides are courtesy of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater.

This is the first time a tourism group or city has partnered with a ride-sharing company like Uber for a marketing campaign like this, said David Downing, executive director of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater. Downing and his team are in Chicago today to promote the new winter campaign.

"Chicago has always been a great market for us, and we're happy to be the first to work with Uber on a marketing campaign that's truly the first of its kind," Downing said.

Visit St. Pete-Clearwater approached Uber for the chance to partner up on a specific campaign.

"They were very receptive. It's refreshing to work with a company that is so excited about trying something new," Downing said. "We're really embracing this new sharing economy. Uber and Airbnb are not going away, it makes sense to work with them and not against them."

In December, Pinellas County was among the first in Florida to begin collecting sales tax on Airbnb room bookings. Bed taxes for Airbnb rooms are now collected in 23 counties across the state.

Visit St. Pete-Clearwater's winter marketing campaign will also include digital billboards around the Chicago area.

Last year, the tourism agency put snowmen in Chicago and New York holding signs that read "Sunshine or bust!" and "Even I've had enough!" At the bottom of the signs was a URL to winter blows.com, with travel information about Pinellas County.

Last week, bright yellow Visit Florida advertisements were plastered across 31 Florida dump trucks that were sent from Florida to Washington D.C. to help clear roadways after a recent blizzard.

Contact Justine Griffin at jgriffin@tampabay.com. Follow @SunBizGriffin