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But the air is still, the temperature unseasonally high, and the sky as blue and clear as Lake Michigan.

Not a night for handing out sticky toffees to those trick or treat-ers.

Chicago could do with this weather on Tuesday. The city is planning an enormous election party in Grant Park. 65 thousand free tickets were made available, and were snapped up within hours.

If the city's favourite adopted son looks like he's going to win, city officials think closer to a million people will turn up. Just heard on the radio that one of the universities has already cancelled late afternoon classes, as a precaution.

I spent a little time earlier this afternoon with someone who can't make the party in person, but who'll certainly be there in spirit.

From his tenth floor apartment, Leon Des Pres, enjoys an enviable view of Hyde Park, the neighbourhood where he's almost as revered as Senator Obama.

When I make small talk about the weather, he tells me it's 94 degrees in Arizona today. I can't tell whether this is a mischievous political joke at John McCain's expense. The Senator from Arizona is experiencing a torrid time in the dying days of the campaign.

Mr Des Pres began practising law in the early 1930s. For twenty years from the mid-1950s he was virtually the only member of the city council to defy the will of Mayor Daley, who ran Chicago's Democratic Party as a personal fiefdom.

One magazine labelled him the "first Negro on the city council", because although there were black councillors, they, too, were creatures of Daley.

Reflecting on the Obama candidacy, Leon Des Pres says he never thought he'd live to see this moment. To him, it represents both a transformation in the attitude of white Americans during his lifetime and proof that African-American politicians can win beyond their own community.

For the record, Leon Des Pres is white, and a centenarian. He never thought he'd see a black President of the United States in his lifetime. But, then, it's been a long life."

You can hear Shaun's conversation with Mr Des Pres on The World This Weekend on Sunday at one o'clock.