Winter flooding

Stability has returned to the local weather scene. Though a few of my favorite birding/driving areas to the south were hit by deadly flooding.

Thank you to driftless area correspondents for a couple of links. First, Jim Rome's take on Sir Edmund Hillary's death. Rome knocks out this take as only Rome could.

Second, a tribute to winter camping appeared in the New York Times. Winter camping beckons!

Thaw crazy

The Chicago Tribune's editors have similar thoughts about the strange January weather and also believe in the weather gods.

Weather gods

This thaw has been far from overlooked by the media, and I am eating some crow today (proverbially, not the ones that roost in our yard). Today, the Tribune featured the thaw as a news alert across the top of its home page. The mercury touched another record high today, this time in the neighborhood of 64. Flood watches and warnings are posted throughout the four-state region; it was 73 in the east-central Illinois city of Danville. A tornado may have touched down near Rockford, the first January tornado in the Chicago area since 1950. A line of severe thunderstorms swept through the area, and I watched the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building get struck by lightning on my way home. Indeed, all hell has broken loose since my first thaw post, and the apocalypse may be upon us.

False spring

Today the temperature touched a record high of 58 at Midway Airport. The statewide high was 72 in Cahokia, in southern Illinois. Tomorrow lower 60s are expected here. It's been quite windy and very damp, though no rain yet. I am enjoying the spring-like weather though it won't last for long.

Drifting away

The Tribune has provided a paean to the Driftless Area (the geologic region, not the blog). Southwestern Wisconsin is a beautiful place, and a few of us had a chance to wander the curvy back roads of the area in July.

In other Driftless Area news, the eagles have returned to Lock and Dam No. 13 in Fulton, Ill., along the Mississippi. The latest reports are of 500 present--the highest figure I've seen in recent years. A link to recent photos here.

Thaw love

A big thaw is under way in the Chicago area, and this post is part of an effort to give equal time to thaws as well as freezes and snowstorms. (Cold temperatures and snow get all the attention. Mild winter temperatures and rain are often overlooked and really only get mentioned when they lead to floods.) The temperature in Uptown is 40 right now, and the snow around our building is quickly disappearing. We had a significant snowfall New Year's Eve and are well ahead of the seasonal norms. My knee has kept me from cross country skiing (damn). Anyway, as part of a southerly flow, today's forecast is for 41 and a chance of rain. By tomorrow or Monday we could see near-record temperatures in the upper 40s and lower 50s and a steady rainfall.

Thaws are part of the regular cycle in Chicago winters though many will have you believe winter here is always a bleak, frigid experience (much of it is). But in these latitudes, the snow melts a few times a winter and the ground is bare for lengthy periods of time. I estimate that 300 or 400 miles north of here is where there truly is snow on the ground all winter long.

The down side of the thaw: it reveals all the litter and soiled tree lawns around here. The up side: we get to wear our wellies.

Snow drift

I found an interesting feature on Weather Underground. If you click on Snow Depth, it takes you to a list of snow depths around the state. Here is a link to Illinois' snow depth. The current depth at the Freeport Wastewater Plant is 7 inches. The Northwestern Illinois burg of Mount Carroll, former home of Shimer College, is tops in the state at 10 inches.