7/24/2010 - Illinois Sunset

We spent most of Saturday afternoon and evening celebrating my former graduate student's successful MS degree completion at his parent's home near McNabb, IL. It was quite the party! Chase got to swim, ride on a golf cart, and meet lots of folks. We were treated to a beautiful sunset as weak convection along a cold front overtook us. A few pics illustrating the beautiful colors of this Illinois sunset ...

7/23/2010 - DeKalb Bolts

A rather amazing night across northern Illinois. Continuous thunderstorms dumped anywhere from 3-8 inches across rain-soaked areas north of I-88. Uniquely, my house had experienced very little rain over the past three weeks (<0.5"), despite all the flooding north, west, and south. That changed last night ... we had 3.34" in just under 6 hours. Even though we had some pretty significant street flooding and a bit of fresh water trying to come into the house at about 4 am, we were lucky. Folks just to the north appeared to get two-nights worth of back-building MCS action, with rainfall totals nearing 8-11 inches in some locales. Anyway, I snuck out for a few moments near 11 pm to capture some lightning as the storms continually redeveloped over the top of DeKalb and migrated northeast. A lot of the lightning was intracloud or CGs embedded in rain, which would cause blow outs in the photos. I was able to capture some bolts, minus the shrouding rain. Below are two of the resulting images.

Doppler storm total rainfall. My house is the red cross. Image illustrates the dramatic gradient between the haves and have-nots.

7/9/2010 - Lakeview of Chicago at Sunset

My brother, Ken, flew into Chicago for business on Friday. After his biz meeting, we met up for whirlwind tour of the city. First stop was the Embassy Suites Lakeshore, where we checked in about 7 pm. We then shuffled over to Navy Pier where we boarded a Shoreline Sightseeing cruise. However, this was no ordinary tourist cruise -- it featured an open brew tasting (i.e., all you can drink) of Rock Bottom beer. The weather was perfect, the beer was tasty, an we met some cool folks. I highly recommend the brew cruise if you can find the time. After the cruise ended, we caught a cab to Rush St., where we enjoyed many more beers and even a Chicago-style hot dog or two. Finished the evening with a night cap at the Signature Room, high atop the Hancock Tower. Below are a few pics from the brew cruise -- tough pics to capture due to the moving vessel and evening light (or lack thereof).

 

 View from Hancock, looking south.