The warmest, coldest, snowiest and wettest weather since 1871

Here’s a look at the warmest, coldest, wettest and snowiest Valentine’s Day in Chicago, going back to 1871.

Data is from the National Weather Service’s Chicago office and measured at the city’s official recording site, which has been O’Hare International Airport since Jan. 17, 1980. For almost a century prior to that, sites around downtown Chicago, the University of Chicago and Midway International Airport were used to gather definitive weather data.

“The overcast afternoon, with a slight breeze, brought city dwellers out on window shopping sprees or sent them strolling with their families to parks and playgrounds. Young couples walked hand in hand along the lake front. In the suburbs, home owners went to work washing the family car, sponging the windows, inspecting their lawns, or visiting outdoors with neighbors.”

—  Chicago Tribune, Feb. 15, 1954

The record high temperature for Chicago on Feb. 14 was 62 degrees in 1954. The warmth brought a larger number of people to outdoor attractions including the Brookfield Zoo, which was visited by an estimated 6,000 people that day. The number of people “feeding peanuts and cookies to the animals” at the zoo was twice that of the previous year, then-director Robert Bean told the Tribune.

The normal high for Valentine’s Day in Chicago is 35 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

The coldest high temperature on Valentine’s Day was just 8 degrees, which was recorded in 1879 and 1943.

In 2023, the high was 55 degrees.

Chicago experienced its lowest Valentine’s Day temperature in 1905 with a recording of minus 11 degrees. It was the lowest of six negative-degree lows recorded on Feb. 14 in almost 150 years. Though the frigid weather was not front-page news, there were several instances in the Feb. 15, 1905, edition of the Tribune describing fires started by overheated furnaces.

The normal low on Valentine’s Day in Chicago is 20 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

In 2023, the low was 33 degrees.

“Serious traffic interruptions resulted as downtown buildings shed ice loads in the above-freezing temperature. Michigan av. was roped off at noon from Wacker dr. to Randolph st. as icicles plunged from the top of the Carbide and Carbon building at 230 N. Michigan av. One chunk, estimated to weigh half a ton, landed with a report like an aerial bomb, damaging three parked cars.”

—  Chicago Tribune, Feb. 15, 1950

Valentine’s Day has been mostly dry with no rain or just a trace recorded during 102 of the past 153 years.

Precipitation of half an inch to 1 inch has occurred five times since 1872, according to the National Weather Service.

In 1950, almost an inch of rain fell on Chicago — the most ever recorded on Feb. 14. The precipitation was part of “one of the worst ice storm beatings (Chicagoland) has ever taken, and counted its loss in millions,” according to the next day’s Tribune.

In 2023, just 0.13 of an inch fell.

“It was a Valentine’s Day dumping that caught many by surprise. Local, state and county workers were dispatched to dump salt and remove snow, but many expressways were already hopelessly backed up.”

—  Chicago Tribune, Feb. 15, 1990

Since 1872, snowfall of three inches or more has been recorded just three times on Feb. 14.

A record snowfall of 8.3 inches fell in 1990. The storm brought “a fierce combination of relentless winds and biting snow that left rush hour travelers stranded for hours on snarled roads and expressways, or sitting helplessly at a virtually shot down O’Hare International Airport,” according to a story in the next day’s Tribune.

Less than an inch of snow fell in 2021, but snow depth was estimated at 15 inches — the highest snow depth for the day since 1979.

No snow fell in 2023.

Sources: National Weather Service Chicago; Tribune archives and reporting

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Originally Published: Feb 10, 2021 at 9:50 am