CHICAGO (CBS) — The brutal and dangerous cold wave Hovering over Chicago will linger through Tuesday — after bringing wind chills of -20 to -25 Monday morning.
The intense cold follows intense heat, such as 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded in the city. Such extreme temperatures will continue with the changing climate, experts say.
Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford says there will be changes in Chicago winters.
“Climate change is making extreme cold less common and less intense, but not eliminating it completely,” Ford said.
The dangers of such extreme cold are well known.
“It could only be a matter of minutes before we start seeing quite significant and in some cases irreversible effects of extreme cold,” Ford said.
But while everyone feels the cold, Kristen Malecki, head of the Climate Change and Health Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that feeling does more to our bodies — with concerns we should be aware of other than hypothermia.
“Our body responds by making our blood thicker. Our thyroid hormones change our metabolism, so we want to eat a little more. But that’s all to protect our organs from the inside out,” Malecki said. “Thicker blood, you know, a higher heart rate increases the risk that things like cardiovascular disease and respiratory problems will worsen – so more chance of heart attacks – or that people with asthma or respiratory conditions are at high risk in this cold temperature.”
Research is currently underway on the UIC campus to find solutions to mitigate the impact of climate change. The team that conducted the research was selected by a national Climate Change and Health Initiative for work they started this fall: monitoring the impact of changing temperatures on our health.
“Climate change is likely one of the biggest threats to health and well-being that we will see in the future,” Malecki said.
For now, Malecki says, the best idea is to simply stay indoors — despite the fact that staying indoors carries an increased risk of flu and other illnesses.
“The city of Chicago plans to stay indoors, and that’s what we really need to do to keep the public safe,” she said.