Fall officially starts Tuesday, and in the the Chicago area, it will certainly feel like it.
“We’re a good 10 degrees below normal,” NBC 5 Storm Team meteorologist Kevin Jeanes said.
After a cool morning in the 50s, temperatures Tuesday will top out around 63 degrees under partly cloudy skies, with a chance for sprinkles at times.
At 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, the exact moment of the 2026 fall equinox, temperatures will have dropped back into the 50s.
“The equinox marks the exact moment when the center of the Sun crosses the plane of our planet’s equator,” a post from NASA said. “The day of an equinox, observers at the equator will see the Sun directly overhead at noon.”
In the Northern Hemisphere, the vernal, or spring equinox signals warmer, longer days on the horizon. The autumnal equinox brings the opposite: shorter days and cooler nights.
Sunrise for Tuesday will be at 6:39 a.m. in the Chicago area, with sunset at 6:49 p.m. By Sept. 30, sunrise will be at 6:46 a.m., and sunset will be at 6:33 p.m., the website Time and Date said, wth the Chicago area losing between two and three minutes of daylight each day.
Tuesday also marks the last chance in 2026 to see the iconic phenomenon of Chicagohenge, which occurs on the spring and fall equinoxes.
Although the days are getting shorter, the temperatures will gradually rise.
“The trend is we’re warming up each day the rest of the week,” Jeanes said.
By the weekend, temperatures should reach 70 degrees, with a high near 74 by Monday.
This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.
