First Freeze 2009

Projected overnight lows (NWS)

If you have any plants or vegetation prepare to protect them. Tonight the NWS will be issuing a freeze warning for the northern Illinois region. Overnight lows are to dip below the freezing mark. Widespread frost is highly likely. Highs Sunday probably will not make it out of the 40s.

Artic Oscillation indicates cold airmass to linger for the next several days

6-10 day temp. anomaly map (CPC)

Chicago's Recent Rain

September 2009 will be remembered as one of the driest Septembers on record. Much of Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin has been under the influece of High Pressure largely due in part to a major blocking pattern. Since Sunday we have been recieving on and off showers about the area. This has been the regions first rains in over 3 weeks. Below are some of the rainfall numbers recorded today. Most fell west of the Chicago area.

Today's 9/22/09 Rainfall Amounts

3.63" Madison, WI

1.53" German Valley, IL

1.33" Dubuque, IA

1.22" Mount Carrol, IL

1.19" Rockford, IL

0.17" Milwaukee, WI

Records in jeopardy as autumnlike airmass sets in

Waking up this morning with temperatures in the 50s makes it hard to believe we're in the middle of July. A pocket of cold air in the great lakes adding cold air advection from the north will cause for temps to barely make it to 70 degrees today and keep us in the 60s tomorrow. Meanwhile, low temps will get down into the low 50s for the next couple of days. These temps are some 10-15 degrees below normal. The average high for this time of year is 84 and the average low is 64. This weekend there needs to be an eye on a few records that can be broken. In particular, record cool highs and record lows. The forecasted high for today is 70. Below is a list of records likely to be broken with the record and the year.

Friday (Record Cool/Min High: 80, 1878)
Saturday (Record Cool/Min High: 78, 1942) Saturday (Record Low: 53, 1979)
Sunday (Record Cool/Min High: 78, 1977)
Monday (Record Cool/Min High: 79, 1977)

Everyday in June has had at least one tornado report

The U.S. tornado streak is at 18 days since May 30th (a very active pattern for the month of June). This streak will likely continue with severe weather expected from the Plains to the Midwest and Ohio Valley over the next few days. For the year there are 889 tornado reports. 165 of those reports are in June. Below is a list of the top 5 states with the most reports thus far:

Alabama 98
Texas 94
Georgia 64
Kansas 64
Missouri 60

Month to date (top 3 states):
Texas 25
Kansas 22
Colorado 17 (total for the yr, 24)!

2009 tornado reports through June 17!

U.S. tornado reports month to date through June 17!

Areas today where severe weather is likely to take place!

Vortex 2 catches #1

Vortex two catches their first tornado.

http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?from=email&bcpid=823503751&bclid=19052817001&bctid=25333977001

Hurrican forecasters predict 9-14 named storms this year

Hurricane season is underway. The above images depicts what forecasters are predicting for this year. I'll have more to write later on.