03/29/09 Early Spring Winter Storm

Winter scenes like this found in Dekalb, IL this morning

Last night an early spring winter storm that produced a mammoth blizzard in the Texas panhandle and central plains earlier this week made its way to the Midwest yesterday. The day started with moderate rainfall with a mix of freezing rain and sleet. Finally, after midnight the rain changed to snow over northern Illinois and Dekalb. Due to the high moisture content of this snow it stuck to just about everything. My forecast of 4-5" of snow for Dekalb, IL looks like it verified with areas in Dekalb County reporting 4 and 5" of snow just as predicted, but far from the 8" or so models were projecting earlier in the week. The main issue with yesterday's system was the change-over to snow was gradual enough that it allowed some ice to accumulate on the trees. This combined with the snow accumulation on top of that put some stress on tree limbs causing many to break across campus. I was able to get some damage photos of this including a very large tree limb behind Davis Hall that couldn't withstand the weight of the heavy wet snow and ice. Other than tree damage across the county no real travel problems thanks to this storm occurring in late-March instead of January or February.

Altgeld Hall after the winter storm this morning

Nearly half of a tree laying amidst the snow

Roads pretty clear thanks to the near freezing temperatures and the wet nature of the snow made snow removal much easier on campus with this storm

More tree damage pictured (above)

Davis Hall winter scene

More damage from the winter storm behind Davis Hall

Entrance to Castle Drive

Amazing the things you'll find in the snow

Lots of crackling being heard in this wooded-area on campus

What a mess...

West Lincoln Highway this morning

Late March sun-angle doing wonders melting the snow already

More and more of these scenes

Campus view atop the parking garage

Another area across West Lincoln Highway

Geese in the East Lagoon probably wondering what season it is again as well as myself

Hopefully, this is the last "winter" post anytime soon. What a winter though that just keeps tallying up the snowfall total across Dekalb, IL. A quick look at the models shows that this active pattern will continue over the next week at least.

03/18/09 Spring Break 2009

A sure sign of spring in my backyard during spring break last week

After a warm near record "spring fling" over the last few days I figured I'd post some (spring) photos from last week while I was home. Spring Break 2009 didn't really feel like a spring break for myself with piles of work ahead of me and no planned trip to any of the many spring break destinations. The only thing that resembled spring break was the weather surprisingly. Last year, it was near 60 and yet again this year back in my hometown of Kewanee, IL it reached 60 for a couple of days. This felt good after a long northern Illinois winter. I also got to storm chase twice last week which usually never happens as usually the weather pattern is dull during that week every year it seems. What I did accomplish during the albeit brief break was experiment some more with my new macro-lens from Christmas. Ah...I'm beginning to like this lens more and more. There are just so many uses for this lens I'm finding...

One of our cats (macro-lens)

Over the next few weeks I'll be busy with projects and what not...the weather pattern is showing more signs of some severe weather scenarios especially early next week. Who knows maybe I'll find someway to storm chase yet again this month...ya never know...