Chicago is Tornado Immune

I always sort of heard that one, although I don't know why we would believe it would be impossible for a tornado to hit the city.

WGN Weather Blog

Tornadoes in the city of Chicago

Dear Tom,
Many Chicagoans firmly believe that a tornado cannot touch down in the city. That's
not true, is it?
Scott Robertson, Chicago

Dear Scott,

No it is not! Tornadoes do hit within the city. At least a dozen tornadoes have been
documented in Chicago, though many have been weak. Only one has been recorded
downtown--an F3 storm that swept from near 18th Street and the Chicago River to the
current site of Navy Pier on May 6, 1876.

On March 12, 1976, an F2 twister clipped the far northwest side near O'Hare and on
March 4, 1961 an F2 tornado killed one and injured 115 as it cut across the South Side.

The tail end of the F4 Oak Lawn tornado on April 21, 1967 traveled across the South
Side before dissipating over the lake near 79th Street. Chicago's earliest recorded
tornado struck the Norwood Park area on May 22, 1855.

This seems like something the Weather Channel would do a show on, one of those 'It Could Happen Tomorrow' episodes. They could predict what would happen if an F5 hit right in the middle of downtown. That way nobody inside Chicago would ever sleep well again.

Actually, I take that back, according to wikipedia they have already done that episode in Season 2.

11 F5 Tornado Chicago Plainfield Tornado January 7, 2007

I've always been easily scared of nasty tornado-weather. Although last year I handled taking shelter in the basement the best because I brought my laptop with to take my mind of it (something my dad thought was funny - I didn't bring anything I really needed, just a pillow and my laptop).

I signed up to get the feed from the WGN Weather Blog a few months ago, I have to say Tom Skilling not only really loves the weather, but he really knows what he's talking about.

A Change in Weather?

If weather.com is to be believed we can look forward to a high of 45 on Saturday and a high of 52 on Tuesday. I'm not quite sure I believe it. But it would be nice to get rid of some of that snow and ice that we've had for weeks and weeks. Sometimes online friends who live in warm areas that never or rarely see snow get jealous when I write about snow. But you have to remember that the snow really only looks nice for the first day or two tops. Then it turns black along the street, or if my dogs have been in the area yellow. Its not just the endless cold we've had, its those big mounds of black snow that have been around for weeks that are getting on my nerves too.

A little more photo enduced cheering up.

Aftermath of Ike - Flooding

Chicago was hit relatively hard with flooding over the past few days. It rained heavily on Saturday, and then Sunday the remnants of Ike came through and added to the misery. My area is in pretty good shape now, the past few days the big thing has just been getting around town. There have been a lot of roads closed off due to the flooding, and it has been hard finding a street that can take you over the Des Plaines River. The Chicago Tribune has some really amazing shots of the flooding, and people dealing with it.

Right near my house though there is a cemetery (we always call it the Greek Cemetery), and it flooded. Even though we need to be concerned about the health and welfare of those alive and dealing with the effects of the storm, it was really sad to see the cemetery flooded like that. My sister, grandparents, and great-grandparents are buried at the cemetery across the street from this one, and it seems to have been spared the flooding that this cemetery was hit with.

I took these pictures of the cemetery this morning. Its not nearly as flooded as it was yesterday and the day before, but you can see there is still a lot of damage. As I was walking around I rescued a couple of worms that were drowning in the water - I probably should have thought twice before I did because the water is dirty and smelly, but its something I've done since I was a kid.

Slow Day

The Sox just won the game in 14 with a 3 run homerun from Swish. I actually can't believe I sat here and watched the whole game, they were down 6 - 1 at one point early on. Thats cool. The fans that stayed for the whole game got quite a show. I'm supposed to go to the game on Thursday with my Dad, I'm looking forward to that.

Today was a slow day. We had the big storms last night, the power went out around 8 or 8:30 and didn't come back on until 1:30. I'm glad it came on when it did, it was getting hot in the house and I was waking up about every 20 minutes or so. It was just an overall weird night. I was working on my computer about 7:45 or so when I heard my Dad calling me, I opened the door to see what he wanted and he said we needed to get in the basement because the sirens were going off. I grabbed a pillow, unplugged my laptop and ran downstairs with it.

Bringing the laptop for me actually makes a lot of sense. When we do get these storms where we do have to retreat into the basement I usually start getting nervous as all there is to do is turn on the TV and think about the storm overhead. With the laptop I could follow the storm, but also do other things, post on some message boards and think about some other things too.

After the first big storm passed we were all ready to go back to our normal stuff when the power went out. Funny thing is even when the power is out there is still a glow in the sky from the city so it wasn't pitch black. I could see there were all kinds of branches down in front of our house and I could look out the frontroom window and see that there was a very large branch blocking the street (I live on an intersection between two streets that make a T so it wasn't my street that was blocked it was the other). I got to watch all kinds of cars try to go down that street, then turn around and go back. As time dragged on it was getting hot and I was bored. I ended up watching some videos on my Zune. The power was spotty at best this morning, but it seems to be on for good now. We are lucky because there are a lot of people who don't have power right now and may not have it for a few days.

I ended up not doing too much today. The big highlight of the day seemed to be when Hogan's Heroes came on TV this afternoon. Hopefully there will be more going on tomorrow. Looks like another hot day, I'm really not looking forward to walking to the bus.

Shhhh, it's almost here

I saw this little nugget in the Chicago Tribune. Ugh, I could really use a break in the weather. The only nice day we've had was in January, and then it wasn't really nice because we were worried about tornados.

Shhhh, it's almost here
March 12, 2008

This will come as no surprise to the weather-weary multitudes around here. But since Dec.1 Chicago has gone no longer than two days without snow, sleet, slush, hail, rain or some unspeakable mix of the above. This little winter nugget was reported in Tuesday's Tribune by WGN-TV's Tom Skilling.

But Tom's sorry trend could end this week. No cause to break out the Coppertone, but still. This wet winter also has been cold. It has been gray -- among the cloudiest winters ever. Snowfall thus far -- and isn't that a menacing phrase? -- totals 53 inches. Since the start of the year, snow has fallen on 46 days, the most in any year since 1975.

The winter of 2007-2008 has been a character-builder, and it's not over. We can't officially peel winter's icy grip from our region for another two weeks, with the arrival of the vernal equinox March 20. Not that winters here pay much attention to such niceties as calendars, equinoxes or other imperatives. Even then, the nastiness may continue. Snow, cold and gloom don't usually respect their cue to exit in Chicago.

But we know change is coming -- and not just because daylight-saving time arrived Sunday. Step outside. There's a softness in the air that would have been unimaginable a week ago. The sky is ... not always gray. And there's not a drop of anything falling from it -- for the moment.

Link

Ok, thats it

I'm sick of winter. Thats it. Its time for it to end.

Usually everyone is irriated at me because I say I like snow, and want snow. And I do. Just not anymore. I've had enough of the snow and the cold to last me until next winter. At least one person in my house has been sick since the first week of December. I'm not saying a change in weather will guarantee a turnaround in health, but it couldn't hurt either. It would be nice to open up the windows, and enjoy some fresh air. But instead, its cold, cold, cold.

Well, I'm sick of it.

Assessing the Damage

After work today we drove around to check out the damage. I didn't have my regular camera with me, but I had my camera phone, so here they are. These are Elmwood Park and River Forest, IL.




Tree ripped out of the ground.


I don't know if you can see, but its an electric or telephone pole snapped in half.

Severe Weather

A flock of funnel clouds, high winds and torrential rains blitz the Chicago area, uprooting trees, snarling traffic and soaking pedestrians. (CLTV image)
Chicago Tribune

We picked my sister up from school and we're driving through town and I keep hearing something outside. I rolled down my window, heard nothing, rolled it back up. Heard it again, rolled it down again and its the tornado siren. All of a sudden it gets real dark, real quick. I called Dad at work, he was in the tornado shelter and he said to get home quick. We're driving through town and people seemed mostly unconcerned by the siren and the increasing darkness. We had the horn blowing through half the town because people are just acting like nothing is wrong and driving slow, taking their time at stop signs. We were driving down this street near my house and the trees are blowing around like they were about to come down. The windshield got hit by some falling branches. The rain was coming down in sheets where you can't even see a few feet in front of the car. We managed to get in the house, get the dogs in the basement, turn on the TV and called my brother to tell him to stay where he is until the storm passed.

I think we saw most of the worst when we were in the car. And it doesn't appear that it was as bad as it could have been. But I don't think I'd ever seen it like that before, or at least its been a long time. We went from a pretty nice sunny day to black skies in about 20 minutes. Dad said he heard that we did have cloud rotation over our town. I just can't believe how completely oblivious people seemed to be to the whole thing. We've still got some storms rolling through now. I'd hate to see what the Des Plaines river looks like right now. It was high the other day and its rained more since.

Wacky Weather

This is a first for me, I've never seen anything like this with a winter storm, people must be worried. Right now I have a news show from Milwaukee on, and at the bottom they have a crawl with cancellations and closings. I've always seen this used for school closings, but in this case its church closings.

The list of churches listed is quite a lot too. Catholic and Protestant churches and religious schools are closing down for tomorrow.

It doesn't look like much out there right now, but according to Dad its bad when you're out there. He said its a cutting mix of sleet and snow thats being driven by the wind.

I've heard of 7 deaths in Wisconsin already from this storm, keep the people of Wisconsin in your prayers.

It's Snowing In Chicago

As St. Francis can tell you...