It was a windy couple of early December days across the area. Responsible for these winds had been a strong weather system, known as a low pressure, that tracked from the Plains to Lake Superior. This system deepened and rapidly along its path, with a significant temperature difference ahead and behind it.



Fast Facts: The peak wind gusts observed at area airports were 58 mph at Gary Airport and 56 mph at Rockford Airport and Waukegan Airport.

The strongest wind gust at Chicago O'Hare was 49 mph at 12:54 a.m. on early Tuesday morning. From 2 pm Dec 4 through 5 pm Dec 5, winds gusted to 40+ mph at least once in 21 of those 27 hours!

For Rockford, from 8 pm Dec 4 through 4 pm Dec 5, winds gusted to 40+ mph at least once in 16 of those 20 hours.

The winds caused isolated minor damage per media reports, such as a gas station canopy in Alsip, IL and some windows blown out in a few locations.

Temperatures on Monday were near record highs in the mid 60s, and then fell sharply to around 30° by Tuesday morning, with wind chills in the teens to 20°.

Hourly map of mean sea level pressure and temperatures (image) from Dec 4 into Dec 5.