What is up with this weather??? (Oak Brook, Paxton: sick, stores, parent)

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Champaign County was swampland until it was drained. I think it was plenty humid there.

NW Indiana was also rather swampy and much of that area was drained to make way for farmland.

[runninfiend]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Champaign County was swampland until it was drained. I think it was plenty humid there.

It wasn't technically swampland, but rather wet prairie. Swamps and bogs are permanently flooded, peat accumulating wetlands, while wet prairies are waterlogged by snowmelt and heavy downpours of rain in spring and summer.

Champaign County was certainly wet prairie, and large swaths weren't effectively mole drained, but required tiling before they could be farmed because of their wetness. Land baron Matthew Scott laid 26 miles of tile in Ford, Champaign and McLean counties in the 1880s.

For an example of true swamp (well, marshes) in Illinois, see the Great Inlet and Green River swamps in Lee, Bureau, and Henry counties. To this day, an intricate system of large ditches crisscross the land, draining the tiled farm ground that used to be swamp wetlands:

http://dnr.state.il.us/orep/c2000/assessments/lower_rock/swamps.htm (broken link)

[Katiana]

The previous post was interesting, but I think my point remains: it was humid in Champaign Co before corn farming started on a big time basis. Corn is grown here in CO, too, and it's still dry here. Corn is grown on a large scale in Nebraska, which is also dryer than Champaign.

[via chicago]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

The previous post was interesting, but I think my point remains: it was humid in Champaign Co before corn farming started on a big time basis. Corn is grown here in CO, too, and it's still dry here. Corn is grown on a large scale in Nebraska, which is also dryer than Champaign.

Thats counter-intuitive...farming, especially corn, creates MORE humidity because of the amount of the water vapor released into the atmosphere
http://www.niu.edu/pubaffairs/RELEAS...aug/corn.shtml

[Katiana]

Maybe a little more, but I doubt it was ever as dry as Colorado or even Nebraska.

[NYrules]

UMMMMM, Ok I think we all got off topic here. Corn and humidity??? Maybe to some extent, but for your info, most of the moisture coming into IL as well as areas east of the great ol' Miss si sip, comes in from the Gulf, not corn farming, cars, or any of that non-sense. I've got news for you, corn is grown on a large scale out in CA as well as tons of other tropical fruits and stuff and guess what... It's as dry as a bone out there! While I agree corn does throw off some moisture, the fact still remains, IL is situated under what are called the "westerlies" as well as the rest of the continental US, meaning winds typically blow in in a west to east fashion. Moisture is sucked northeastward out of the Gulf usually from low pressure systems which if you look at a map and line up areas like Houston (the west edge of the Gulf), take a big ruler and aim it northeast, you will miss areas like NE, most of IA, most of OK and even TX and aim that air right into IL, IN, WI, MI, and areas east of here where corn is not even grown on any grand scale such as NY, PA, WV, all of which are also VERY humid in the summer months. Also lets not forget the litterally billions of gallons of fresh water right off to our east, as well as smaller lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, swamps, etc. all throwing off moisture to add humidity to the air. Ever see what the lake does in the winter? http://www.viewimages.com/Search.asp...partner=Google

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by NYrules

... most of the moisture coming into IL as well as areas east of the great ol' Miss si sip, comes in from the Gulf

It's the Bermuda High which forms every summer. Air rotates clockwise around it and that warm juicy air flows out of the Gulf over the center and eastern parts of the US. I seriously doubt that corn adds much to the river of humidity that the summer air circulation brings to Illinois.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

The previous post was interesting, but I think my point remains: it was humid in Champaign Co before corn farming started on a big time basis. Corn is grown here in CO, too, and it's still dry here. Corn is grown on a large scale in Nebraska, which is also dryer than Champaign.

I doubt that growing corn in SEMI-arid regions of Colorado and Nebraska is sustainable given the water issues that are becoming more apparent as time goes on.

[Katiana]

That may be true, but has nothing to do with whether growing corn increases humidity.

[Steve-o]

Well, at least the last few days have been nice.