RED ALERT - it was so damn dry that his community was on red alert for fires! Were one fire to break out, there could have been a cascading effect. Thankfully, it rained here(gently) on Saturday and Sunday too.
But then this headline on the Chicago Tribune's home page caught my eye:
Bracing weather: High winds to sock Chicago area
A high wind warning has been issued for the Chicago area Tuesday when a strong cold front could touch off one of the strongest storms to hit the Great Lakes region in decades, with winds clocking at more than 55 mph.
A squall of thunderstorms is expected to rake the area around daybreak, followed by strong winds throughout the day and into Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
Winds could be as strong as 35 to 40 mph during the day Tuesday, with gusts of 55 mph or more, meteorologist Andrew Krein said. There could be a lull overnight before winds pick up again Wednesday morning, he said.
"These will be straight-line winds," Krein said, adding that the chance of tornadoes is slight.
Good news that, about the slight chance of tornadoes. But I remember a November day from the early 90's, playing bridge at Steve Coates' apartment with Robert Green and the now-retired FBI agent John Vincent. Those winds howled, and the building shook. Being serious bridge players, we moved the game into the basement parking garage, taking along candles, just to be safe.
That was as much fun as I've had playing bridge since my college days with the wonderful games at Jim & Helen Schaedel's home. Being the first (and probably last and only) non-PhD teacher ever tenured by the WIU Math Department, and a former merchant marine, and a bridge expert, it was inevitable that Jim would be one of the many older men I looked up to.
My favorite night in all of my college career occurred in January, 1973. A visitor from Kirkwood, Missouri had inquired about who to see in Macomb, Illinois to play bridge. That's how he got Jim and Helen's phone number. I was the (extremely) honored 4th for the evening. It was my senior year, my last quarter, and I had an evening class, Art 180 (art appreciation). For class that evening we were to view the film Touch of Evil. As the snows kept falling, and class time came ever nearer, I made the executive decision. I was not going to the class. It was far more important to me, to keep playing bridge with these people, Jim and Helen, who had taken me into their home like a stray dog for two years, and the Missouri gentleman.
Good choice. The class was canceled because of snow, and I got to see Touch of Evil later.
Back to the upcoming Chicago-are windy weather forecast:
The warning is in effect from 7 a.m. Tuesday until 7 a.m. Wednesday in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, DeKalb, Lee, Ogle, Boone and Winnebago counties. A high wind watch is in effect for Will and Kendall counties, as well as Lake and Porter counties in Indiana.
The high on Wednesday is expected to be in the mid-50s and only in the upper 40s on Thursday before warming up in time for Halloween with highs in the mid-60s.
The storm could be one of the strongest to hit the Great Lakes region in the last 70 years, the weather service said.
And now, I really have to say "Thank you chicago tribune!" because you are about to provide me with some very important information for comparative purposes:
The worst is the Great Blizzard of 1978, which pounded Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin from Jan. 25 to Jan. 27, 1978. The 28.28 inches (958 millibars) of barometric pressure recorded in Cleveland during that storm remains the lowest nontropical atmospheric pressure recorded in the mainland United States, according to the weather service.
Up to 40 inches of snow fell, driven by winds gusting up to 100 mph.
Oh, do I ever remember that one. I was living with Susan in Oak Park, IL. We started shoveling the alley way behind her garage at about 4 a.m. There was a car port next to the garage where my car was parked. We didn't start my car again until April. We had nowhere else to put the snow. Your basic sisyphean task. And it snowed, and it snowed and it snowed.
Fun memories, in some ways. Having done it, I'd rather not again.
Next on the list is the Armistice Day Storm that hit on Nov. 11, 1940 and packed winds of up to 80 mph, according to the weather service. Temperatures plummeted by 50 degrees, and a raging blizzard dumped up to 27 inches of snow over Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The barometric pressure was recorded at 28.55 inches (967 millibars).
That one was before my time. But it fell on my son Adam James' birthday, so I'll probably remember it in the future.
No snow is in Tuesday's forecast, but the barometric pressure could drop to 28.35 inches (959 millibars). The lower the pressure of a storm system, the more violently moisture is sucked in.
Number five on the list is the storm that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald ore freighter on Nov. 10, 1975.
That's a damn fine article. Very helpful, especially for night walkers such as myself. (I'm a street walker too ... rofl). Might be time to cancel my walking plans for tomorrow (except I can't; it's Marie's birthday and she's baking a cake for the chosen at Rainbow Records).
Priorities. It's always about priorities.
