Four Fridays in October

October 7

October 14

October 21

October 28

Beautiful Day

Oh, my goodness.  Yesterday was a beautiful day: temperatures in the 70’s, slight breeze, gorgeous blue skies and fluffy white clouds.  I love the color of the blue skies against the green grass and trees.

July 2014 - park near our house

Another reason why the day was so beautiful: It’s July -- traditionally the hottest month of the summer.  But this year’s July has been over the top with pleasant temperatures.  We had temps in the 70’s for several days around the Fourth of July.  While tomorrow is supposed to warm up again, next week’s weather prediction has the temperatures back into the 70’s.  I love it!

The Illinois State Water Survey says: The average temperature so far this month in our town is almost 5 degrees below the historical average of 75.  We may be headed for the third-coolest July on record (dating back to 1889).  Number 1 on the list is 2009 at 70 degrees.  The cool July weather is all because of an unusual position of the upper-air jet stream.

In contrast, two years ago, our town lived through its second-hottest July ever with seven days with temperatures of 100 or greater and 27 days with temperatures of 90 or greater.  Last summer was plenty warm, too.

Wind the clock back 6 months and we were in the midst of a cold, snowy winter.  In mid-January our snow total was nearly 25 inches for the season.  January temperatures weren’t any better: average at 20 degrees which ranks as the 17th-coldest January on record in Illinois. 

March 2013

The News-Gazette reports of the infamous winter of 1977-78 when the average temperature in our town was 20.2 degrees and we were buried in a record 67.2 inches of snow.  The next winter was barely better with an average temperature of 20.4 degrees.

Rank	Winter	Total snow in inches
1	1977-78	67.2
2	1981-82	58.4
3	1961-62	45.9
4	1983-84	44.9
5	1963-64	44.3
6	1959-60	41.6
7	2010-11	41.1
8	1978-79	40.5
9	1950-51	39.9
10	1911-12	37.8

I definitely remember the winter of 1977-78.  I began working at the college library January 1978 and was commuting from GC.  My first week of work the college was closed two days.  I do remember two other days that we were closed due to snow the next month.  The plows chiseled great walls of snow along the highways.

But that was then, and this is now.  We’ll keep talking about the weather and remembering “back when,” and we’ll set new records and compare year to year.  And I’ll be happy when the skies are a gorgeous blue with fluffy white clouds and the temperatures are mild.

1964

Looking for Relief

And I thought last summer was too warm.

This July has set a 90-degree heat record: 27 of 31 days this month the high temperature touched or exceeded 90 degrees.  Not liking that.  The old record was in July 1921 when there were 25 90-degree days.

Among the 27 days this month were seven days when the high was at or greater than 100 degrees.  The average high this month has been 95.2 degrees which is 10.2 degrees above normal.

Although not a record, we’ve had only 0.61 inch of rain for the month.  It’s definitely a drought.

1936 looked like a miserably hot summer, too, with 15 days in the hundreds.  And no air conditioning.  That’s the one thing that has made this summer bearable.

I’m really looking forward to August when the temps just have to drop.  Please.

(source: The News-Gazette - July 31, 2012)

Pothole Time

Winter weather and snowplows create havoc in the roads. Here's how our town handles potholes.



This is a couple blocks north of our house and has been there for at least two months now.

Big Winter Storm

This winter's big snow storm was forewarned the end of January. The meteorologists started telling us about Friday, January 28, that a large storm was forming. Indeed, as it turned out, it impacted about a third of the United States. East central Illinois did not receive the possible 14-inch snow fall. It was more like 6-8 inches. But it was preceeded by freezing rain so conditions were treacherous.

Cold rain and snow began Monday afternoon, January 31. Most schools announced closings that evening, and I was thrilled to hear that the College was one of them. I heard the announcement on the radio as I was trying to fall to sleep. Not trusting that I heard correctly, I got up and watched the scrolling list of closings on the local television station. After seeing the College's name pass by a couple times, I figured it was safe to turn the alarm clock off.

Tuesday morning, February 1, was leisurely. No big snow overnight and traffic on the streets seemed to be traveling at a "normal" pace. But the weather forecasters were still preaching heavy snow and strong winds. Once again schools announced closings for the next day and, again, the College was one of them!

Wednesday proved to be a nasty day. The roads were definitely not to be traveled. Snow plows were making the rounds, but it took several passes before the main streets were plowed curb-to-curb and corners of intersections were cleared so that you didn't have to make what felt like a 90-degree turn.

John and I tackled clearing our driveway after lunch. It was not a simple task. The snow was "crunchy" with a layer of ice beneath. I was assigned with breaking through the snow, and John scooped and moved it away. As we cleared and approached the street, it was daunting to think of having to break through and remove the compacted snow that the plows had left at the end of the driveway.

After an exhausting 3 hours the driveway was cleared. I figure John did about 75% of the work, but that doesn't mean that I didn't have stiff and sore muscles for the next couple days.

Notice the chunks of snow. Click on the picture for a larger image.



Three days later, Saturday morning, February 5, we woke to a steady snowfall. It was quite pretty with a Christmas card-look. You can see in the photo below that our big efforts on Wednesday to clear our driveway were now covered.


The snow stopped after about 4 inches, and after lunch, John and I again shoveled snow. This was an easier snow to clear.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Two weeks later, February 18. What a difference a couple weeks make. With yesterday's temperatures in the mid 60s (after being in the single digits just last week), this is the view in our front yard:



P.S. How many people have a periscope coming out the top of their house??? ;-)