What's With The Weather?

What’s up everyone?

There is a saying back were I come from.  “If you don’t like the weather wait five minutes.”  And that is fairy true in the state of Utah.  The weather seem unable to make up its mind.  Here in Chicagoland its a little more predictable.  Usually it either hot and humid or bone chilling, cut you to your core cold.  Nah! There is more to it than just those two extremes.

Recently we have been experiencing some strange weather.  A week or two ago, we were up into the seventies and the next day we woke up to snow on the ground.  Strange days have come indeed.  With these atmospheric anomaly happening, I figured I would take the time to talk to you about the weather here in Chicagoland.

I have come to the conclusion that there is two major factor that contribute to the climate out here.  One being the lack of mountains, or a large hill for that matter, and of course the mighty Lake Michigan.  Yes.  I do acknowledge that there are other factors, such as urban heat effect, but I feel these two have the most impact on the area.

The topography is different out here than that of the west.  For the most part it flat and I mean flat.  The highest elevation in Illinois is Charles Mound.  It comes in at a whopping 1,235 feet (376m).  Unfortunately its not even large enough to be consider a hill, just a large mound.  To give you a little bit of a comparison the highest elevation in Utah is Kings Peak at 13,534 feet (4,125m).  Mount McKinley (Denali) at 20,320 feet (6,194m) is the hight point in the United States.  So not much of a blip on the topography scale.

There is a reason why they call Chicago the windy city.  And no, its not just because the politicians out here are a bunch of blowhards.  Without mountains or higher elevation to brake up the wind its free to run amok and build pulverizing speeds.

When these winds get too out of control that is when we get a truly deadly force in the form of tornadoes.  One thing that I never really thought about was that Illinois was prone to have tornadoes.  One average the state is hit with 64 of them annually.  According to data collected from 1998 through 2007.   A few days ago we had one touchdown in the town of Ottawa about an hour drive from where we live.  Tragically three people had lost their lives and massive property damage.

That got a little more solemn than I meant it too.  Needless to says it gets really windy here.

Like many places that have large amounts of water it gets really humid here.  Especially during the summer.  That brings us to the effects Lake Michigan has on the climate of Chicagoland.  I’m from the desert, so I never really understood what people meant by humidity.  Back in Utah we have a dry heat not a lot of moister in the air.

I know many of you are think, “Well whats the difference?”.  To give you a better understanding think of it this way.  Picture an oven and a sauna.  Dry heat is more like the oven and tends to draw moister out of things.  Wet heat is more like a sauna with the constant presence of water around you.  It tends to feel more “sticky”, like you just worked out and your clothes stick to your sweaty body.  Personally I like the dryer heat, but lets face it wet or dry they are different face of the say coin.  Heat is heat.

Of course the lake plays a major component to the amount of precipitation that we get here.  On average the northern part of the state receives less than 32 inches and the south receives more than 48 inches a year.  When it rains it really rains.  Large heavy drop tend to be the norm for most of the storms.  Couple that with thunder and lightning and you have a light show not to be missed.  I would not recommend standing out in it though.

We have been lucky since we moved here.  We have not experienced the infamous Chicago winters.  Lake Michigan is a cruel mistress with her lake effect in tow.  Averaging 36 inches in the north and 10 inches in the southern part of the state.  For us it has been fairly mild winters.  With that being said it does get cold in the winter.  The temperature are, for the most part, tolerable.  Its the wind that gets you.  The wind chill is what cause it to feel much , much colder than it actual is.  BONE CHILLING COLD!

For the most part the climate of Chicagoland is nice.  There will be extremes regardless of were you live.  I may have exaggerated a little, but not much.  Illinois is a long state and the weather differs depending on were you’re at.

If the weathers good get out of the house and enjoy it.  Until next time.

Thanks for stopping by.

Josh