While Gerry gets to relax, it's our turn to be nervous up here in NIUland
60 miules west of Chicago. We saw almost 6" of rain today from a 50 MPH
low level jet, a warm front, a saturated atmosphere and support aloft to
bring rain and thunderstorms to flood northern Illinois pretty hard.
O'Hare airport roads have been shut a considerable part of the day, and we
just had one of our biggest one-day rainfall totals in the area. A few
areas just east of me have gotten nearly 9" of rain in the last 24 hours.
And now, here comes Ike. Turning northeast? Not yet...look at satellite
and radar, not at the NAM and GFS. We have our own 3.8 meter (12'
diameter) dish and a great LNB's/satellite receivers on the end of
the dish struts, but it isn't worth a red cent without power! With 25 MPH
northeast winds and 8" of rain in a two-day period, I think we can
weather it, but just make sure you have a backup. I think my downstream
sites do, but...just in case.
BTW, we didn't have any rain fade during the heavy rains today, so as long
as we have voltage, we'll have data.
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Gilbert Sebenste ********
(My opinions only!) ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University ****
E-mail: sebenste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu **
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