The new 1981-2010 climate normals are available for Illinois. You can find them through a station list or a Google Map on my homepage. Climate normals are 30-year averages that are updated every 10 years in the U.S. The National Climatic Data Center produces the climate normals for the US. By settling on a standard averaging […]
Category: Observations
Snowfall Totals from around Illinois
The winter storm of February 1-2, 2011, will be remembered by many in northern and central Illinois. The National Weather Service (NWS) did an excellent job of producing forecasts and warnings on this storm. In the aftermath, we have began collecting the snowfall measurements from a variety of networks. Rather than list all the data […]
Short-Term Weather Lore Holds a Kernel of Truth
Before the Internet, The Weather Channel, and NOAA radios, our ancestors relied on nature to tell its tale of upcoming weather. Moss growing on the south side of trees and squirrels hiding their nuts deep underground were thought to foretell a severe winter ahead. Some natural prognostications like these are grounded in truth, given our […]
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Historical Record High Temperatures
With the recent warm weather, have you wondered what the record high temperatures are for Chicago and elsewhere? In the last few years, a group composed of NWS, Regional Climate Centers, and State Climatologists stitched together the weather records for 270 major metropolitan areas. The results of this project can be found at http://threadex.rcc-acis.org/ The […]