March, January, March: rinse and repeat

The temperature yesterday got all the way up to 2°C at 2:30pm before plummeting overnight to -13°C just before dawn this morning. That means we had the highest and lowest temperatures of 2025 within a single 16-hour period. At least this far below freezing, we don't have all the slush and squish that leads to a towel looking like this after just one walk:

It gets better. The forecast for Tuesday night calls for even lower temperatures, with Wednesday morning being too cold to walk Cassie to day camp (-10°C is her lower limit for a 20-minute walk). But then it'll go back up to 4°C on Friday.

Of course, Wednesday is the mid-point of winter, and Chicago always gets cold in January. Plus, the conditions that lead to these really bracing temperatures bring clear skies along with them, which we do like this time of year. We take the good with the bad here.