It's wet

Pretty dull day around here. I am once again the only person at work (3 days in a row). I have no choice though if I want to be prepared for next semester. Below is a pic I took of some of the rain dripping off of the trees outside of my window.

Christmas 2007

Christmas was fantastic! Great time with friends and family. Below are a couple of pics I wanted to pass along (click on the images to see a larger version).

Here is Alaina with our new niece, Lyliann on Christmas day.



Lauryn and I at "Amber Jacks" restaurant.



Grandpa's Flag on Christmas Day.



Sunset on Christmas evening in Chapin, IL.



The Snodgrass'.

WINTER STORM and gusty winds!

After yesterday's major winter storm, which dumped large amounts of snow across Iowa, Missouri and Kansas and brought a 32F temperature drop as the cold front passed through central Illinois, I wonder who is going to have a white Christmas? Below are two maps. The first is a meteogram that monitors temperature, dewpoint temperature, pressure, wind speed and direction and precip type against time for the time period when the front passed through Champaign, IL. We had wind gusts in Springfield, IL up to 57 mph and C-U had wind gusts reaching 51 mph. At one time, the temperature in Jacksonville, IL was 26F, the temperature in Springfield, IL was 36F and the temperature in Decatur, IL was 52F. Pretty impressive cold front! The second in a map made by Intellicast that shows todays snow cover and depth. Monitor snow cover across the US here.

Our Christmas Tree

here is a quick pic of our tree this year.

Undecided on the snow

Model's are still "out to lunch" on the track of the low. Looks like it will be another "wait and see" scenario. Below is the latest NWS graphic.

Snow again on Saturday?

After watching the models over the last few days continue to trend the track of the low further and further south, I am finally starting to believe the NWS forecast for Saturday. The complications in the forecast stem from the model's inability to handle the snow cover and depth over the Midwest (which is why our high temperatures have been so poorly forecast). The track of the low should be close to where the snow cover line resides. We'll see if it takes the track shown in the image below.

The end result is that the potential for a white Christmas goes up everyday.

So far in December we (in C-U) are at 7.8" according to the ISWS. This is very typical of a La Nina year.

Michigan License Plates

My mother sent me this story. I took great joy in reading it...

"A recent Illinois graduate moved to Dearborn, Michigan for a job. She had an apartment with a Michigan address, and she winced whenever she looked at her Michigan driver's license. When it came time to register her vehicle she had an idea. She'd get personalized plates and make things right.

The personalized license plate for her car arrived, and she beamed as she installed them. She was so proud she sent an instant message to her father right away. (He too was a proud Illinois alumnus.)

'Daddy,' she typed. 'I'm so excited! I got new, personalized plates for my car today. They're University of Michigan plates!'

'WHAT!?!' he replied. 'You have to be joking!'

'Nope, I'm totally serious. let me send you the image.' Her father couldn't stop laughing after he viewed the picture of her car."

Go Illini!

Freezing Fog

With all of the moisture in the air and a low temperature last night of 14F, a thick fog settled in a froze on contact with most surfaces. Below are a few pics I took this morning on the south side of campus.

White Christmas?

With all the snow in C-U, I thought it would be a good time to look into the possibilities of a white Christmas.





The National Weather Service made the map of Illinois below to show the probability of having a white Christmas. Check out this link for Springfield, IL which shows Christmas Day weather since 1879.


Some NWS Stats about Christmas Day in Springfield, IL. I added the stuff in parenthesis .

• Normal high and low temperature: 35 and 20.
• Warmest Christmas Day: 62 degrees in 1982. (Strong El Nino)
  
• Coldest Christmas Morning: -14 degrees in 1983. (Strong La Nina)
  
• Coldest Christmas daytime high temperature: 0 degrees in 1983. (Strong La Nina)
  
• Warmest Christmas nighttime low temperature: 46 degrees in 1936. (Middle of the Dust Bowl - Our nations worst weather catastrophe - nearly all of the central US's record high temperatures were set during this year.)
  
• Wettest Christmas: 0.60 inches in 1951. (At the beginning of the drought of the 50's)
  
• Snowiest Christmas: 4.2 inches in 1944. (Middle of WWII - during the "Battle of the Bulge")
  
• Whitest Christmas: 11 inches of snow on the ground in 1915.
  

Small group boxing (Erin destroys all who enters the ring)

Some pics from small group last Thursday. Be sure to watch Erin destroy both Lucas and Kyle in one round of wii boxing...

Erin vs. Lucas
Erin vs. Kyle

Ethan was festive.

Snowy Saturday

I hope we get this much. Model trends seem to suggest...

Saturday's Snowfall in C-U

We'll see...

Olga: 25 deaths and Major flooding in the Dominican Republic

So far, most news sources are reporting 25 deaths from tropical cyclone "Olga" which caused major flooding in the Dominican Republic. One of my students, Brittany Powers, passed these photos along to me from Santiago, DR. Click on the image below to see all the pictures.

Homespun Electricity (sign me up...)

Check out this article from the NY Times about wind turbines in your back yard. I want one!

Ice Oklahoma; Mudslides in Oregon

So far 23 deaths have been attributed to this major ice storm. 1/3 of the people in Oklahoma are without power and every county in the state is in a "State of Emergency". Watch this CNN video to see the ice and then at the end check out the incredible footage of a mudslide in Oregon.

Olga!!!

Although officially ended by this recent NOAA report, the 2007 hurricane season has made it to "O" (the 15th named storm). For information on the names of Atlantic hurricanes go here.

Watch latest satellite loop. The current track of this storm is aimed to hit near where Dean and Felix hit earlier this year. Both Dean and Felix were category 5 storms and they set a record because they represented the first time that back to back category 5 hurricanes made landfall in the Atlantic Basin.

wish I was here...

With all the ice and the exams during finals week, I wish I was fishing at Blacks Cliff.

Dec 10 Campus Ice

This must have been a cold ride in today...



I think the total over the weekend was about 0.5" of ice. Accumulations on these trees look about 1/2 inch think. (behind Daniel's Residence Hall and Wholer's hall)

Icy Sunday

Lucky for me I did not have to scrape the car windows before church because it began raining at about 8AM. Check out the video of the sliding ice sheet.



Here is a tree outside of my office that is crusted in ice. Looked pretty cool with the light behind it. I hope we get some clear skies tomorrow so I can take some ice pics with a blue background.

Icing continues...

last night we got another nice coating. Roads seem ok, but the car is covered. Took me 15 minutes last night to clear it off after having dinner with friends - guess I will have to do the same thing this morning before church.







This is one of the best freezing rain soundings I have ever seen!

Dec 8 Icestorm Warning

Ice storm warnings across central Illinois. Forecast soundings suggest a major icing event. Watch the radar and keep an eye on the NWS.

Here is a pic of the current advisory map for central Illinois.

Just a little more than a year ago on Nov 30 and Dec 1, 2006 , central Illinois was locked into a pretty devastating ice storm where nearly 2 inches of ice coated the I-72 corridor. Decatur was in the worst shape with some 15,000 Ameran-IP customers without power for 15 days. Below are some pics from my parents house in Rochester, IL from this event. The basketball hoop was taken by Brian Conrad in Taylorville, IL (one of my students).

freezing rain

I have never seen a NWS forecast that looks like this before

dec 6 snow

after waiting several hours for the low levels to moisten up it finally started snowing around 8PM. We woke up to about 3 inches in Urbana.














campus looked transformed. Altegeld always looks nice when the evergreens are covered in snow and of course the Alma Mater has been decorated for the Rose Bowl.