First local storms of 09

Finally!

I wasnt expecting much today, but was treated to a fairly stormy afternoon in downtown Chicago, where unfortunately I work.

Wasn't severe by a long shot, but there were some frequent CGs, some good loud thunder to drown out the noises of the city, and even a brief moment of sleet size hail. High winds ruined my umbrella along with many other peoples. Thats a typical sight though, its funny to watch in a cruel sort of way. I was really impressed with the downpour though. It was the kind that happens with the slow moving popcorn storms that form when our dewpoints get into the 70s on a summer day.

Needless to say I was quite pleased to see the sights and hear the sounds I love, a reminder that spring is just around the corner and active chasing will soon begin...although a burst to my spring bubble will arrive in a few hours after the FROPA. This weekend will be back in the upper 20s and low 30s.

I saved an NWS radar screen shot on my PC at work, obviously I cant have GR3 installed on there so its all I can use. Not a bad little storm over the loop for the end of February!

By adumbftw

The past few days GFS has shown a couple interesting systems for next week, leading me to believe March would roar in like a lion. Todays runs though are nowhere nearly as impressive, and brings one of the systems well to our south which suggest we could see another snow event. A system in the later part of the work week may give us similar conditions to today. Maybe tomorrow the model will trend back to the more exciting pattern it showed the previous few days...I hope.

I ordered a new [refurbished] laptop, and was told I can use my old 8mm to stream video this year, aside from me still being a little sick...things are looking up.

Time to sit and watch the next batch of rain move in, theres some severe storms in MO and some broken line segments in central IL, perhaps they can make it here, but with loss of heating Im not holding my breath, still fun to watch though.

Edit 8:37pm

Got clipped by the northern end of the line. My house is approx where I put the black dot, kinda hard to judge on this radar but its close enough. Pretty heavy rain persisted about 5 minutes with a few weak flashes of lightning followed by some distant thunder. It beats snow anyday though. Pretty nice to have a day this time of the year with multiple rounds of storms. It will be interesting to see what kind of rain totals come out of this. Radar shot:


I cant wait to get my PC fixed, I MISS GR3!!!!!! This PC I ghetto rigged as a temporary replacement runs on Windows 2000 and is too weak to support GR3.