The Weather Here

I see it has been way too long since I posted. I shall correct that right now. Today I had the opportunity to tour the Nation Weather Service's Chicago office. The office is actually now located in Romeoville, IL, a suburb of Chicago.

A little bit of history. The Weather Service implemented this office in 1870 right here in Chicago. It seems after some maritime incidents in the Great Lakes the Government was hoping they could nd chose Chicago to start it. The Burehelp by establishing a Weather Office aau moved from the Department of Agriculture to eventually under the jurisdiction of NOAA.

The tour consisted of the building and back grounds. The NWS is staffed 24 / 7. Total staff is 24 with at least 3 members on duty at all times. During weather emergencies, additional staff is bought in to man the extra computer work stations to keep ahaead of the storms.









This is the HAM radio station where outside observers and spotters can radio their info in directly to the NWS if needed.

Of course the big advantage of this facility is it's state of the art WSR-88D Doppler Radar. This baby stand 28' tall to the base of the dome and then the dome is at a 28 foot diameter. The radar looks out at 220 miles and can tilt from 1 degree to a 45 degree axis, with continuous 360 degree coverage.





Besides the on duty staff, in case of emergency, there are axillary units that can be called out to assist NWS in disseminating information.

This is NOT the type of weather graphics you want to see.

What a great Memorial Day weekend we have shaping up here. A little on the cool side but actually average for this time of the year.

Our thoughts go out to those fallen comrades who gave their life for our freedoms.

I am loving these "weather guys" sense of humor. At first glance I thought they were doing an Amber Alert, but:

Me and my big mouth told friends a families that the storm would bypass us ... huh! Woke up this morning to seeing this:

Past couple of 50's days were nice BUT today's forecast of 73 degrees. Now that's spring :) Probably hit 75 to 77 out here. We shall see.