About 20-30 minutes ago there may have been an earthquake that was felt in Northern Illinois.  I woke up to the birds in the room next store startled by something, then felt the sensation of my bed moving.  After calming the birds down, i turned on the television and a Chicago station was reporting that they were recieving calls that people had felt a possible earthquake.  A few minutes ago Fox News is reporting a 5.4 earthquake with no immediate reports of damage.  More information will be added as it becomes available.

     Heavy rain and wind was the norm across Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin throughout the day today.  Flooding is the main concern throughout the entire area.  Overnight tonight strong to possibly severe storms are possible.  Some of the storms that look to be heading our direction have produce tornadoes earlier around the Quincy, IL area.

It has been awhile since our last update here at Transitweather. Well we have good reason: first off our team has been taking classes and going to NWS seminars. The other big project going on at Transitweather is some major improvements on the website. We are currently working on the new 2008 theme and finishing off our photo gallery and video archives. These new improvements will increase the interaction and features of Transitweather using some great new technologies like ASP.NET AJAX and Microsoft Silverlight. Some items on the new site will require the Microsoft Silverlight plugin to be installed. The nice part is that it's free and very quick and easy to install at less than 1 mb. Another improvement many of our team members are working towards this year is some new photography equipment so they can capture more quality photographs for Transitweather.

The only bad news i have right now is that we don't have any severe storms in the forecast yet and we don't have a confirmed date for the new theme's release. Although it will be posted as soon as we have a set date.

     A day that was supposed to be filled with happiness and joy as people shared their day with that special someone quickly changed shortly after 3pm when a gunman opened fire at Northern Illinois University.  The shooting took place in Cole Hall where many students pass through everyday.  For those who were on campus time seemed to stand still as something that seemed completely surreal was actually happening.  When it was all over 22 people were injured and a few minutes ago a 7th fatality was confirmed.

     Though this is a website dedicated to weather, a tragedy like this strikes very close to home.  One of our StormTeam members attends NIU full time and is a resident there.  Many of our members have family and friends that attend there also.  Thankfully everyone we know is safe and unharmed.  For those people who aren't as fortunate as we are, we here at TransitWeather have you in our hearts and prayers and offer our deepest condolences. Today we are all Huskies.

Stats are in from the NWS offices on the recent Feb 5 - 6 2008 snowfall.

Chicago NWS

Milwaukee NWS

Quad Cities NWS

 Needless to say snowfall was quite heavy at times along with the near white out conditions caused by the blowing snow didn't help traveling if anyone was out either.

After last weeks winter storm that left much of Northern Illinois and the Chicago-land coated with several inches of snow; we got more ice, sleet and snow on Sunday evening. The snow came just in time to snarl commuters that ventured out for the Superbowl. IDOT reported several highways across Illinois as dangerous levels of ice and snow cover. One of our very own members had the enjoyment of driving highway 39 up to Rockford, IL from Bloomington, IL. He reported the road conditions as extremely icey and slow moving. They pasted 20+ vehicles ditched along the highway.

If last weeks storm and Sunday's random outburst wasn't enough; we have more on the way. Possibly a lot more. Today we expect rain and fog in the area, but going throughout the day tomorrow me can expect the rain to turn over to snow.

 

NWS Chicago has totaled the amounts from the recent Jan 31-Feb 1 snowstorm.  A link to that information may be available at the National Weather Service websites at

NWS Chicago Snowfall Report

Snow Report

NWS Milwaukee - Sullivan

Report

 

As an interesting start to February, most of the state is dealing with a wintry system which moved in and plans to stay a while.  Up to and including the forecast of 5-10in may be expected through Friday (2-1-08).

As if January wasn't exciting, we know have our first hail of the year for Marengo, Jan 29 at approx 3:50p.  A small line of what is more considered lighter rain showers dropped us pea size hail for a good 3-4 minutes. This was ahead of a cold front bringing the chance of heavy snow in a few days.  Photos of the hail will be made available when our Image Gallery is developed.

(animated radar screenshot from wunderground.com showing the cell)

At the request of many emails we have received reguarding more information of the recent severe weather outbreak on January 7, 2008 our (TW-WDT) Web Development Team, our gallery is under construction which will feature photos and videos of both this recent weather event as well as past chases and photos. Further information will be available as this project is under development.