Tornado NW of Chicago & Few Showers here
July 30th, 2009 at 2:01 pm by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Uncategorized, Weather
<–Live radar of W. Michigan. Showers moving in from Lake Michigan are fizzling. They had 3/4-mile visibility in heavy rain at Waukegan IL, but as expected, the storms weakened over the lake. They’ll be gone by daybreak more than likely. Late this afternoon a tornado was reported in Capron, IL – near the Boone-McHenry Co. line. Spotters reported gusts to 82 mph, nickel-sized hail and tree debris in the air! More on the Illinois tornado from WREX here. There’s a lot of concerts tonight (Beatles revival at the Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival), so come back here to check the radar. The showers tonight will be mostly light and scattered. Here’s Chicago radar. Here’s GRR NWS radar, Great Lakes radar, SPC Meso-Discussions, Current Tornado & Severe T-Storm Watches, Storm Total Rainfall, latest surface observations, lightning data, GRR NWS discussion, Visible Satellite loop (daytime), Infrared Satellite Loop (night), Here’s Milwaukee NWS radar.
HEY BILL BACK FROM INDY! COULD IT BE A SEVERE NIGHT?
Bill says it’s going to weaken over Lake MI.
Storm prediction center states these are low topped storms. The threat for weak tornadoes or funnels will be possible for the next few hours.
HOPE THE STORMS STAY 2 GEATHER!!!!!!! I WOULD LOVE A NICE LIGHTNING STORM 2NIGHT!!!!
The lake should kill these.
Showers would be nice. It’s true these are low topped I checked the anvil height echos.
There may be a stray flash of lightning here or there, but after crossing the cool lake waters and with the loss of daytime heating.. it’ll be tough to even get that.
Just had some slightly ominous looking cumulus float by overhead..I think if these would have arrived back around 3-4PM.. we would have had something going.
So far the radar looks weak still: http://www.wunderground.com/radar/radblast.asp?zoommode=zoom&num=6&delay=15&rbscale=0.6152173913043478&scale=1.000&noclutter=0&ID=GRR&type=N0R&lat=0&lon=0&label=you&showstorms=0&map.x=346&map.y=256.5¢erx=400¢ery=240&lightning=0&smooth=0&showlabels=1&rainsnow=0
Looks like at least a chance for a shower here tonight. I could sure use the rain, but I’ll bet it will miss me somehow.
Think positive maybe it will sprinkle
I’d be interested to see if there will be more of a movement in Michigan to reduce lawn space (it’s a waste anyways) and people planting drought-tolerant plants (Xeriscaping). I read an article last fall saying that the designated zones for plant temp. tolerance was increasing. Michigan is generally a zone 5 (at least at my house) but would likely be a zone 7 in the next two years or so. This summer obviously doesn’t relflect that theory, but the Pacific North West region does.
I guess whether or not lawn space is a waste is up to the lawn OWNER. I’d prefer the government not bother themselves with such things. There is PLENTY of water in Michigan.
On a related topic, we stopped into the EGR Library/city office building because my son had to use the bathroom. The bathroom featured an environmentally friendly, water conserving, waterless urinal.
It smelled. BAD. In fact it made the whole bathroom smell bad. That’s progress for you I guess.
What happened to our normal summers? We used to see a couple of severe storms in the summer. Now we dont get any. I am not complaining but when we get the storms we get rain. My corn, beans, and hay could use some rain.
Rain would be good. A nice gentle all night rain would be ideal. I’m
glad at least that the lake fizzled the heavier storms.
Hey Bill, with this summer’s temps being cooler than average, what does the winter forcast look like? A colder and snowier winter?
The deer must be having a tougher time finding food. I had a deer come right up to my bird feeder and pull out the cherries I had out for the birds. And the area I live in is “woodsy suburbia”.
Bill I noticed that the bees are worse this year. Take a look at this picture I took tonight from a tree in my front yard.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/001.jpg[/IMG]
This is what happened after we discovered lol
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/004.jpg[/IMG]
Holy Cow! I’m up in Comstock Park and we just got really strong winds and horizontal rain. I dont think I have heard/seen anything like that in a long time.
I’ve been told the above links didn’t work. Here are different ones.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/004.jpg
Here are new links because i’ve been told the other didn’t work
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/002.jpg
stink bug is still not wiggling its legs. NO RAIN AGAIN!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/umaangel00/Nature/004.jpg
Those are the links to my bee hive I posted earlier. apparently my other links didn’t work and I couldn’t get them in 1 post because it went to moderation instead.
Jennifer you murderer!! LOL
We had a nice steady rain here at my house tonight, was great to hear!
Well in her Fort Wayne we were mostly sunny out. Some good daytime heating in my neck of the woods but still nothing for precipitation. I have the next 3 days off so im hoping for some nice weather. Although a night time shower would be nice to help keep things a comfy cool temp.
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DETROIT/PONTIAC MI
925 AM EDT FRI JUL 31 2009
…ALL-TIME COLDEST JULY ON RECORD AT FLINT…
WITH AN AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURE OF 65.6 DEGREES THROUGH JULY
30TH…AND NO CHANCE OF THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE EXCEEDING 66
DEGREES…JULY 2009 WILL GO DOWN AS THE COLDEST JULY ON RECORD AT
FLINT. THE PREVIOUS RECORD BEING 66.9 DEGREES SET IN 1992.
TO FURTHER ILLUSTRATE HOW COOL THIS MONTH HAS BEEN…THIS IS ONLY
THE SECOND TIME IN JULY THE HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH FAILED TO
REACH 85 DEGREES.
TWO RECORD LOW DAILY MAXES WERE ALSO SET DURING THE MONTH…JULY 2ND
(65) AND JULY 18TH (67).