totsata

Rumbles of thunder as snow is starting to pick up a bit on the border of lake and cook counties. 

Lake county added to the WWA. Calling for 1 to 5 inches with the caveat:

...A heavy snow band is expected near, or
  just north of, the Wisconsin state line. If this band shifts
  south, more significant impacts would result.

Lights flickering now. Just east of the tornado in Palatine.

Tornado sirens going off in Buffalo Grove

The drizzle in the past hour temporarily switched to fat flakes under one of the ‘newer’ radar returns that filled in across N. Cook county. A lot of drip-drip ongoing. Still hoping for a few more surprise inches in the region despite latest short term models and guidance. 

10 minutes ago, Castaway said:

Power just went out in the neighborhood. Damn it. Hopefully it gets back up within the hour

Also lost power for a few minutes in Buffalo Grove. Power is back on now. Wind is howling….power is flickering again.

Big fatties coming down around 6:30 am in Buffalo Grove this morning

A perfect fall day

Just a beautiful pleasant summer evening. 

A nice overachiever tonight in Buffalo Grove. 
 

1 hour ago, Hoosier said:

That link doesn't mention incorrect positive tests.  It says that there are negative test results that haven't been reported.  That is two different things.  Not reporting all of the negative tests would affect the positive test percentage but not the raw number of positive cases.   

You are correct, I should have said incorrect positivity rates rather than positive tests. To me it is still rather alarming to see that many labs with such high positivity rates and then have them admit that instead of 98% it should have been 9.8% positivity rate. There should be better checks in place to test the validity of the results before making them public. 

Surprised nobody has mentioned yet the potential few hundred/thousand? of incorrect positive tests in FL. Wonder how long has this been going on for and is it happening anywhere else? 

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/fox-35-investigates-florida-department-of-health-says-some-labs-have-not-reported-negative-covid-19-results

Took a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon (route 14 and River Rd for those familiar with the Des Plaines area). Remarkably River Rd. is still open, mainly thanks to the higher floodwall that was raised last year. Sharing a few more pics in the link below. Had to compress the attached ones due to size limitations, but the link has a couple from yesterday as well. I can remove link if it is against any of the forum rules. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4aK73Wqgv8136xK37
 

4 hours ago, ovweather said:

I both agree and disagree. Of course the media overhypes just about everything because that brings good ratings. It's just what they do. But I don't think the health care system, doctors, scientists, etc, have been overhyping it. They have approached it with more of a common sense approach since we are dealing with a new virus that we have no clue what kind of potential long-term circumstances we may be dealing with. The politicians... well, they should all simply follow the advice of the medical experts, and not give in to pressure from their respective parties when making community based decisions, but that's never going to happen in this country.

I don't believe covid is more deadly than the flu, it is just far more contagious thus many more people can potentially catch it and thus die. If you are generally in very poor health from lifestyle choices or have a severely compromised immune system, odds are not in your favor of surviving either a severe case of covid or the flu. Plus, without a vaccine for covid, there is even more incentive to err on the side of caution right now.

Good post!

Still a lot of uncertainty/questions surrounding the virus, which I am not sure we will ever know the answers to. In my opinion, a vaccine might cause more harm than good, since I think the virus will continue to mutate making it very difficult to protect against. Especially if they make the vaccine mandatory for all. It may be more effective to be more careful than many have been with hygiene and instead ensure that our immune system is as strong as we can maintain it. 

I think there is some validity to Jonger's post. We don't know if all of the reported covid deaths are because they tested positive for the virus irrespective of severity of other underlying conditions or deaths purely due to covid. We don't know if the same treatment is applied for annual flu-related deaths as is for covid. I am always cautious with sensitive data which can easily be "tweaked" to tell a slightly different story. Just my way of interpreting his post. 

Not downplaying this virus by any means, and I really feel for anyone that has been impacted by it. Unfortunately, in my opinion the ultimate goal was to bring the economy (US and most of the world) down irrespective of how many innocent lives are lost in the process.

Beautiful sunset today. Clouds started to pull away just in time to grab a couple of pics. 

Ripping pretty nice right now, but it appears will do worse than Wednesday. I am not sure if temps dipped lower a couple of days ago, but living on the fifth floor and can't get things to stick much on the metal balcony rail, which had a couple of inches a couple of inches Wed. Nevertheless a picturesque way to end a weird winter. Glad to see a lot of 3+" reports! 

Few squalls have been dumping on and off throughout the day in Des Plaines. Missed on most of the good ones last Thursday but made up for it today. ALEK's photo to me resembled the stadium effect inside the eye of a hurricane for a second 

Around 7:30 tonight, a small cell produced the first lightning strike for the year around O'Hare. Heard Skilling mention it at the 9:30pm weather segment. Thought it was interesting. 

Meltdown mode here (Des Plaines). After a little more than 3 inches of snow, very limited pingers and a couple of hours of steady freezing rain, temp is above freezing. There was some ice accretion but nothing significant and drippage action is in full force. Couple of bad quality cell phone pics. 

LOT's top 10 list of the 2010's based on Twitter and FB polls. 

https://www.weather.gov/lot/2010-2019_Top10WxEvents

Looks like 0.68" from the first wave at ORD which should mean approx. 48.84" YTD. 

https://w1.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KORD.html

52 minutes ago, A-L-E-K said:

I know December has shit the bed but how far are we from wettest year all time?

I believe ORD is at 48.16" which would be 5th all time as it stands. Maybe the 3rd spot is reachable. Not sure we will get 2.7"+ in the next few days to better the record.

Some of the master stat keepers here please correct me if numbers are off. 

1. 2008 - 50.86"

2. 2011 - 49.83"

3. 1983 - 49.35"

4. 2018 - 49.23"

5. 1970 - 46.09"

Few flakes were mixing downtown Chicago on my walk to work from Ogilvie to about Millennium Park. Some slushy spots when crossing the river but 80%+ of precip was rain. Back at the apartment in Des Plaines, more snow wax mixing in overnight which barely covered cars. It was mostly rain at 6:30 am as temps started slowly creeping up. 

Haven't gone out yet but will soon to try and start the car. Attempted to make the infamous instant snow video from the balcony. It kinda worked but would've worked better if I stepped out in the open. Shot at -22F WC of -50F.

Hope everyone that has to be out in the elements stays safe through tomorrow!

https://youtu.be/9cgTv1nf5Ac

16 minutes ago, UMB WX said:

Minus the optimism.

I think there are quite a few optimists on the board (myself included) so it is nice to have someone to ground us which most often than not aligns with the ultimate outcome. 

*This message was paid for by Chicago Storm 

Jokes aside, thank you all for your contributions and knowledge shared!