March was warmer and wetter than average across the state, continuing the pattern from winter. The preliminary statewide average March temperature was 43.5 degrees, 2.20 degrees above the 30-year normal and the 28th warmest on record going back to 1895. Preliminary statewide average total March precipitation was 3.96 inches, 1 inch wetter than the 30-year […]
Category: Observations
Mt. Carroll reclaims the title for the record minimum temperature in Illinois
Mt. Carroll reclaims the title for the record minimum temperature in Illinois Champaign, Ill., 3/6/19: An Arctic outbreak in late January 2019 led to widespread bitterly cold temperatures across much of the Upper Midwest, including Illinois. On the morning of Jan. 31, the cooperative weather observer at Mt. Carroll, located in Carroll County, reported a […]
Read More from Mt. Carroll reclaims the title for the record minimum temperature in Illinois
Contrails and Cloudiness
This morning we had a brilliant display of airplane contrails, enough to significantly increase the cloudiness (as if we needed more cloudiness this winter). Despite rumors to the contrary, airplane contrails are just the byproducts of burning jet fuel at high altitudes where the air is very cold and dry. The basic chemistry involves combing a […]
Fort Armstrong Weather Records (1820-1836)
This semester a University of Illinois Department of Atmospheric Science student, Lauren Graham, worked to make available scanned images of the weather records for Fort Armstrong that cover the period 1820 to 1836. Fort Armstrong was located at the present-day Rock Island Arsenal. The original records were maintained and scanned by staff at the Rock […]