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Thanks for joining us for this Friday, weekend edition of Before the Forecast! And a special thanks to Kim, our intern, for working hard to bring you today's webcast!
For complete weather information, tune in to WGN News at 9pm and wgntv.com for Tom Skilling's Full and 7-day forecasts.
Tune in tomorrow for another edition of Before the Forecast, and as always continue
to watch WGN for more coverage: Morning, Noon & Nine.
Gustav's blustery remnants lived up to the advance billing Thursday, dousing the
Chicago area with its heaviest official rain in more than five years. By evening,
preliminary totals at the Whitney Young High School Weather Bug sensor had reached
4.12 inches with rain still falling. Other reports included 4.06 inches at Justice, 3.76
inches at Palatine, 3.67 inches at Wilmette, 3.62 inches at Orland Park and 3.51 inches
at Lake Zurich. A rainfall of 4.50 inches hit Downstate at London Mills -- located
between Peoria and the Mississippi River. It marked the first time in three years that the
remnants of a landfalling Gulf Coast hurricane reached Chicago. Hurricane's Rita's
remnants were the last to occur here in 2005.
POWERHOUSE HURRICANE IKE CHURNS TOWARD BAHAMAS; FLORIDIANS
UNEASY
Ragged Tropical Storm Hanna is headed for the Carolinas -- but more ominously,
powerhouse Category 4-intensity (135 m.p.h. peak winds) Hurricane Ike appears
headed for the Bahamas. Some computer models indicate Florida may later be a target
which has residents there on edge. The storm is still five days aways and much can
change. But it's a situation that warrants close observation.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
Dear Tom,
I lived in Liberia for seven years and we experienced dust storms called harmattans. Do
these winds eventually cause the hurricanes that reach the U.S.
-Patrick McKeen Buffalo Grove
Dear Patrick,
Hurricanes that affect United States often do develop from westward-moving
disturbances the move out of Africa into the Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands.
However, these dust storms are not associated with hurricanes. Instead, the harmattan
winds are dry, dust-carrying winds from the northeast or east that blow in West Africa
especially from late November until mid-March. In summer, an onshore flow called the
southwest monsoon brings cooler air inland to West Africa, undercutting the
harmattan. The harmattan continue to blow aloft in a layer from about 3,000-6000 feet
carrying dust out into the Atlantic.
Thanks for joining us for this Thursday edition of Before the Forecast!
For complete weather information, tune in to WGN News at 9pm and wgntv.com for Tom Skilling's Full and 7-day forecasts.
Tune in tomorrow for another edition of Before the Forecast, and as always continue
to watch WGN for more coverage: Morning, Noon & Nine.
Chicago braces for an encounter with Hurricane Gustav's rainy, blustery remnants
Thursday. The storm's impact across the central U.S. has been ongoing since landfall
early Tuesday. Rains in Arkansas on Wednesday alone approached 7 inches at Bee
Branch and 5.89 inches at Jacksonville. The system is responsible for 49 twisters from
Lousiana to Arkansas since coming ashore -- and severe storms are a possibility as far
north as central Illinois and Indiana on Thursday.
For Chicago, Gustav means rain and possibly a good deal of it. Of 26 computer
projections of rainfall here through Friday night, 23 indicated amounts exceeding 2
inches. The average of all estimates topped 3 inches with several in the 4- to 5-inch
range. A tally of 3 inches or more would make this the heaviest official rain event in the
city since 3.20 inches fell on April 30-May 1, 2003.
Since 1900, the remnants of 15 landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes have passed
within 100 miles of Chicago.
2008'S HEAT NOT DONE JUST YET DESPITE COOLER SHORT-TERM
PATTERN
Hot weather -- days with high temps of at leats 90 degrees -- may not be finished yet.
Since 1928, 49 years have produced a 90∞ or higher temp beyond Sept. 4 in Chicago.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
Dear Tom,
While watching the morning news on Sept. 1 regarding Hurricane Gustav as it was
making landfall, the videos showed a complete lack of lightning. Was this trick
photography?
Peter Gottstein
Dear Peter,
There were no tricks. Despite widespread belief to the contrary, hurricanes are
notoriously lacking in lightning. Hurricane Gustav, like most hurricanes, contained very
little of it. What lightning there was occurred not in the storm's warm and violent
interior but in its cooler outlying rain bands.
Dr. John Hallett, Director of the Ice Physics Laboratory at the Desert Research Institute
in Reno, Nevada, explains that electrification of clouds requires the presence of large
numbers of ice particles held aloft by violent updrafts. Hurricanes, though, are warm
systems usually lacking in the powerful localized updrafts found in "standard"
thunderstorms. As a result, lightning production in hurricanes is minimal.
Thanks for joining us for this Wednesday edition of Before the Forecast!
For complete weather information, tune in to WGN News at 9pm and wgntv.com for Tom Skilling's Full and 7-day forecasts.
Tune in tomorrow for another edition of Before the Forecast, and as always continue
to watch WGN for more coverage: Morning, Noon & Nine.
These ominous skies and the rain shaft depicted here are the opening salvo of a
significant rain event expected to douse northern Illinois and Indiana’s parched lawns and
farm fields! The photo comes to us from our friend and frequent contributor Anson
Mount and was taken in Mundelein Wednesday morning on his way to the airport.
Anson, as those of you who follow our blog know, is a pilot and is always incredibly
generous in sharing great photos with us. This one’s no exception. THANKS Anson!
Tom Skilling
Photo courtesy of Anson Mount