Tornadoes, 94-MPH Winds Savage Chicago Area

In the Chicago area on Monday, August 4, 2008, the emergency manager thought he saw a tornado, just south of Schiller Park, where a funnel cloud was sighted by a police officer. Funnel cloud reports from south of Valparaiso were also reported. Tornado warnings are now in force for Indiana as we sat in the basement for over an hour while tornado sirens wailed in the southwest suburb of Bridgeport. Lightning and high winds caused power outages to over 100,000 customers.

From Monday at 9:34 p.m. on the storm began to push off to the east out of Chicago. The front, itself, will stay around tomorrow (Tuesday, August 5^th). Things will be a lot dryer and calmer in the coming weekdays.

In Harison Crib winds were clocked at 94 mph. Midway reported 65 mph and both airports (Midway and O'Hare) closed. An inch to an inch and a half of rain fell over the area. In some places, 3 inches of rain were reported. Storms were located mainly off to the south and southwest of the main area of the city. The second half of the week is predicted to be dryer with highs in the eighties. Temperatures will be warming, but there will be nicer temperatures

The Teen Choice Awards on television were interrupted on Monday night and the Cubs/Houston Astros game at Wrigley Field was stopped after 6 innings with the Cubs behind by 2 runs. As I write this, the television screen (we didn't lose power) still says "Rain delay." If the game is called, it will register as a loss for the Cubs, as the team did finish 5 innnings.

On a positive note, I had just visited the Natural Disasters exhibit at the Field Museum and bought the weather radio for emergencies, so we were able to use it during the worst of the storm to keep informed.