What is up with this weather??? (Chicago, Oak Park: home, university, tornado)

[Steve-o]

Normally I love winter, but this is getting crazy!!! Anyone else concur? 3 ice storms, 2 decently significant snowfalls, all in early December. Another worthwhile mention were the near-record lows (single digits?!?!), etc, etc. I hope this gets better soon, this is ridiculous! I will admit that the ice on the trees is really neat though.

On a side note... IDOT and the cities/townships have done a magnificent job of keeping the roads perfect. Cheers!

[scarletneon]

I thought the "Freezing Fog" advisory was pretty hilarious last night (although it was south of Chicago).

The weather's crazy everywhere, my poor brother is trapped in Oklahoma thanks to finals being canceled because of the ice. He said there were freezing rain thunderstorms there. Meanwhile, it's supposed to be in the 70s or something in Tennessee where my parents live. Real Christmas-y.

The roads here have been EXCELLENT compared to Madison, where I was on Thurs/Fri. Most of the roads downtown were still COVERED in snow. Hmph.

[NYrules]

Yep our weather here sucks ***** plain and simple. Springs are generally cold due to the ice water off to our east , summers are hot and humid with millions of mosquitos to chew you alive the moment you walk out the door in the evening, falls are great but only last about a month, then we go into this crap, day after day of cloudy weather. Its not so much the cold or even the snow that gets to me, its weeks on end of this cloudy weather!!! I HATE IT! Scenes like this are really getting old. http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62...agoskyline.jpg

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by NYrules

Yep our weather here sucks ***** plain and simple. Springs are generally cold due to the ice water off to our east , summers are hot and humid with millions of mosquitos to chew you alive the moment you walk out the door in the evening, falls are great but only last about a month, then we go into this crap, day after day of cloudy weather. Its not so much the cold or even the snow that gets to me, its weeks on end of this cloudy weather!!! I HATE IT! Scenes like this are really getting old. http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62...agoskyline.jpg

Why are you so hell-bent on making our weather out to be soooooo horrible. We're completely average as far as national weather goes. Sure springs can be cold, but guess what? Theyre just as likely to be warm and beautiful too. Summers can be hot and humid, but guess what? Theyre just as likely to be perfect. Mosquitos are only a problem in certain areas, dont make it sound like everywhere is bombarded by hoardes of the bloodsuckers. My last 3 places Ive lived have had hardly any mosquitos at all (Im talking 3-5 bites ALL SUMMER). Winter can definitely be gloomy, but then again its almost exactly 50% sunshine in winter. Thats not bad, really. You want gloom and doom? Go visit Seattle or Portland now. You know, places where sunshine percentage for this time of year is sometimes less than 25%. Springs here are also a rollercoaster ride, but I enjoy them. Summers here are amongst the best in the nation, believe that!

No place is perfect, you need to realize that. Whereas our winters are cold, and some places have nice winters, its their summers that SUCK while ours are decent. We dont have to deal with hurricanes or earthquakes, nor mudslides or monsoons, or tsunamis or wildfires. Sure IL gets its fair share of tornadoes, but who seriously has even seen one? Ive been here 30 years, and have yet to even see one. My dad is a tornado spotter with the local ESDA group and he still hasnt even seen one. IOW, while tornadoes do occur here, theyre pretty rare. Its just sad that the ones that did occur did some damage (ie Plainfield). Id rather take my chances with a rare tornado than have to deal with yearly mass evacuations because of natural disasters.

Sure this winter has sucked so far, but the good thing is that it wont last forever. Be thankful you live in such a wonderful area, and be thankful in the fact that youll never get bored with our weather.

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Why are you so hell-bent on making our weather out to be soooooo horrible. We're completely average as far as national weather goes. Sure springs can be cold, but guess what? Theyre just as likely to be warm and beautiful too. Summers can be hot and humid, but guess what? Theyre just as likely to be perfect. Mosquitos are only a problem in certain areas, dont make it sound like everywhere is bombarded by hoardes of the bloodsuckers. My last 3 places Ive lived have had hardly any mosquitos at all (Im talking 3-5 bites ALL SUMMER). Winter can definitely be gloomy, but then again its almost exactly 50% sunshine in winter. Thats not bad, really. You want gloom and doom? Go visit Seattle or Portland now. You know, places where sunshine percentage for this time of year is sometimes less than 25%. Springs here are also a rollercoaster ride, but I enjoy them. Summers here are amongst the best in the nation, believe that!

No place is perfect, you need to realize that. Whereas our winters are cold, and some places have nice winters, its their summers that SUCK while ours are decent. We dont have to deal with hurricanes or earthquakes, nor mudslides or monsoons, or tsunamis or wildfires. Sure IL gets its fair share of tornadoes, but who seriously has even seen one? Ive been here 30 years, and have yet to even see one. My dad is a tornado spotter with the local ESDA group and he still hasnt even seen one. IOW, while tornadoes do occur here, theyre pretty rare. Its just sad that the ones that did occur did some damage (ie Plainfield). Id rather take my chances with a rare tornado than have to deal with yearly mass evacuations because of natural disasters.

Sure this winter has sucked so far, but the good thing is that it wont last forever. Be thankful you live in such a wonderful area, and be thankful in the fact that youll never get bored with our weather.

Here is the thing you seem to fail to realize when speaking of weather... Its all a matter of opinion. To me weeks on end of grey skies, temps below 45 degrees, and having no leaves on the trees, with constant drizzly weather visting the area is not exactly what I would call pleasant. As for mosquitos, you apparently don't live in a burb which is surrounded by forest preserves, and loaded to the hilt with swamps and little ponds as I do. Yes, there are nights here where I don't get chewed alive by the little buggers but that is usually when the wind is blowing so hard they cannot fly. Also as for it being hot and humid, you apparently also don't live on the south side outter burbs where temps are typically at least 5-10 degrees warmer than in the city from about March-Oct. and yes even now would be an example as we only have about an inch of snow on the ground whereas areas to our north have numerous inches and we have only had one day of snow here so far, where as up north like Buffalo Grove has already seen snow twice and they were both measurable snows. So this kind of works to both the southern burbs advantage and disadvantage. When the forecast is calling for it being about 30 we plan on about 35-40, in the summer though it also works the same way so downtown when it is a pleasant 75, it will be 85 to even 90 out here.

I'm sorry to be so disagreeable with you here, but it is obvious you love Chicago and it can do no wrong in your eyes, and yes there are plenty of areas with worse weather than Chicago, but lets not go and say that it is nice here weather wise. Is Chicago a great city with wonderful people? yes, is our government here trying to make the city a better/safer place to live? yes, is our weather here pleasant for most people? NO! And that is not just me talking, why do you think there are so many questions on this very board of people asking about our weather? Could it be because Chicago has earned such a bad rap from litterally thousands of visitors who go back home and spread the word about how awful the weather here is? People whos experiences of Chicago are being stranded at O'Hare for snowstorms, ice storms, fog, severe thunderstorms, etc or coming here in April only to find it still in the 40s or 50s with constant cloudy weather or like in 2006; snow in Oct? All that adds up which is why I say overall our weather here sucks. Sorry.

Oh and to say that we get 50% clear days here in Dec. ummmm check again. mod cut Its more like 6. And that partly cloudy crap is where its either clouds and sun in the sky or the usual here; sunny in the morning, cloudy in the afternoon thanks to the lake.

[Steve-o]

Well, you and I dont see eye-to-eye on this issue. I will stand by the facts that its not cloudy for "weeks on end" because its not. I dont know why people say that. More like its cloudy for several days, followed by a few days of sunshine, then clouds, then sun. If you dont like that, you probably wont like anywhere else in this country except maybe Denver (wait, the leaves fall off there too) or Phoenix (who has nothing but sticks year round lol), maybe San Diego (if you can afford it and want to live with several natural disasters). Other than that, what we experience here is nothing above or below ordinary for the most part. Our sun % is about average, our rain % is less than average, our winter temps are slightly below average, as are our summer temps.

Id also like to point out that your "6% average" of sun that you posted was # of clear days in January according to your link, which would have put it at 25% sun right then and there, but it still is higher than that.. 6 months of the year here are well above 50% sunshine, which makes it nice IMO.

Here is some Chicago weather data:
Weatherbase: Historical Weather for Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

[Tex?Il?]

Remember our abnormally mild/warm October?

I told everybody we'll be paying for it in December!
It often works that way.

[ILFlatlander]

I turned 41 two weeks ago, been here my whole life. I can't wait to get out of here next year. Chicago is a great city in many ways, but the weather does really suck. And it is normal to have many, many cloudy, cold days in a row. I remember not too many winters ago Skilling reported something like 40 to 50 days in a row without sun. But I'm an outdoors kind of person, if you are a couch potato this weather is perfect.

[oakparkdude]

I've yet to get bitten by a mosquito in two years of living in Oak Park.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by ILFlatlander

I I remember not too many winters ago Skilling reported something like 40 to 50 days in a row without sun. But I'm an outdoors kind of person, if you are a couch potato this weather is perfect.

Not even close:

Persistent Cloud Cover Results in Near Record Gloomy Conditions

An extended period of low clouds, fog, and drizzleandflurries made headlines this week across the northern portions of theMidwest (Figure 13). Inthe greater Minneapolis, MN area, the period of December 24, 2005 toJanuary 4, 2006 was the 3rd gloomiest twelve day stretch since solarradiation records began at the University of Minnesota campus in 1963. At the National Weather Service Office in Chanhassen, MN,zerominutes of sunshine were recorded for a period of eight consecutivedays from December 24, 2005 to December 31, 2005, and again fromJanuary 2, 2006 to January 5, 2006. The cloud cover wasexpansiveacross the Midwest, and from December 24, 2005 to January 5, 2006,Chicago's Midway Airport reported only 435 minutes of sunshine out of apossible 7,174 minutes, roughly just seven hours of sunlight in twoweeks time. Further north, in Duluth, MN, save for a fewhours ofsunshine on December 25, 2005, northern Minnesota and northernWisconsinhave been cloudy since December 23, 2005, and as of January 6, 2006,cloudy conditions have persisted across this area for a stretch oftwelve consecutive days, which is the longest cloudy streak since cloudcover records began at the Duluth National Weather Service Office in1990. On January 6, 2006, in southeastern Wisconsin,Milwaukee tied for the most consecutive number of days without sunshineat fourteen, and Madison, WI also had fourteen consecutive days withoutsunshine, tying the record set in April 1992. Fortunately,sunshine broke through the thick cloud deck on January 7-8, ending thegloomy streak.

Midwest Climate Watch Weekly Highlights

By all means, 12-14 cloudy days in a row does suck, but thats still only 50% of the month, as we average. We dont usually get that many in a row. Why am I the only one who notices this?