Climate reading

Chicago and the Chinese solar calendar

In Chicago, the first freeze typically comes October 19, 4 days before the calendar's Frost's Descent begins on October 23. The last freeze is typically over by April 22, and Chicago gets 177 days a year without one. Where the calendar and your weather disagree, go by your weather.

The weather station behind this page

Official NOAA averages for 1991–2020 at this station: a typical year, not a forecast.

Rain and heat across the whole year

Here rainy days are spread through the year instead of bunching up in the hot months as they do where the calendar comes from, so the calendar's muggy season has no clear match in Chicago. On a scale from −1 (opposite) to 1 (perfectly together), Chicago scores -0.18 and the calendar's home region 0.88.

Where the calendar is most wrong about Chicago

These four two-week stretches are where the calendar's names or advice sit furthest from Chicago's thirty-year record.

All twenty-four two-week stretches in Chicago

‘vs. calendar’ is how much warmer (+) or cooler (−) each stretch runs here than where the calendar comes from. Rain figures count rainy days, not inches.

The body-type notes follow traditional Chinese medicine as set out in a national standard in China. Tying them to this city's weather is a traditional association, not a finding from modern research. Which type goes with which stretch is our own arrangement: each is matched to the time of year the standard says it finds hard, or, for rain, to the rainiest of the four when it's wetter than Chicago's year as a whole. Weather doesn't decide anyone's body type. To find yours, take the assessment.

Find out your body type

Twenty-six questions, about three minutes, no account needed.

Take the 26-question assessment

How Chicago compares with the other thirteen

Chicago has 177 frost-free days a year, more than 2 of the other cities here. That's 26 more than Denver, which has the fewest. It's 188 fewer than San Francisco, which has the most.

Rain falls on 34.4% of days here over a year. Phoenix is the driest of the fourteen at 9.2% and Seattle the wettest at 43.1%, which puts Chicago at the wet end.

The hottest two weeks here are Minor Heat, with an average high of 84.7°F and rain on 31.9% of days: never especially hot. 8 of the fourteen get hotter at their peak, Phoenix among them.

The other thirteen cities

• Atlanta
• Boston
• Dallas
• Denver
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• Miami
• Minneapolis
• New York
• Phoenix
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Washington DC

All fourteen cities side by side

Where this comes from

The thirty-year averages are NOAA's official 1991–2020 figures, one station per city, read straight from NOAA's records by our own program. Freezing days for each two-week stretch are estimated from NOAA's monthly counts. Figures for where the calendar comes from are based on weather-station measurements and reanalysis data from the Yellow River valley in northern China, where the calendar's names come from. The seasonal advice comes from the Su Wen, in our own translation.

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