There’s some pretty intense lightning out my kitchen window right now. South of me over the city the clouds are continuously backlit by lightning flashes. Not much sound, just light. I really like this, lying in bed listening to the rain and thunder…I just hope the power doesn’t go out.
We’ve already had power fluctuations, and just a little while ago we heard at least 3 towns’ warning sirens go off due to the tornado sightings.
There are reports of a tornado in Logan Square! Logan Square! Tornados hardly ever come into the city. They were running the freaky tornado siren out by me, but it’s off now.
Very, very intense here in Jeff park, too. Minutes and minutes of sustained lightning and thunder.
Television was unwatchable with all the Emergency Alert System tornado warning for my area. My roommate and I did the sensible thing: stood outside and watched the swirling clouds and lightning near-misses.
We just had one that about jolted both my daughter and me to the floor. So those lightning flashes you’re seeing to the south? Guess where they are.
My sister’s been stuck in a plan on O’Hare’s tarmac for the last hour and a half. Hot, no air, no food/water. Except for the moes in First Class. That really sucks.
We had a lightning strike on the building next door (right on the flagpole) and possibly one on this building. My cheapie monitor and TV now have messed up colors, though I run the computer off a battery backup with surge protection.
I hate you.
All of you.
Downstate, with 79% humidity, heat index still at 99 at Nine Pee-Em, and I’m looking at all your lovely bright red cells on the NWS radar.
I hate you.
All of you.
Why won’t it RAIN???
It’s been quite beautiful here in northern New Mexico tonight, too. It’s been raining non stop since I got back into town after work about four hours ago, which is fairly unusual here in the high desert.
That reminds me of the time a group of friends and I went to Langmuir, a lightning research lab in south central New Mexico, and climbed to the top of (what we assumed were) observation towers during one of the most intense lightning storms of the season. Upon retrospect, they were probably some other type of tower. :smack:
I was caught driving in Lombard when it started - I could barely see the road. Talk about intense rain! Probably the hardest rainstorm I’ve driven through in years.
In Glen Ellyn trees around our home lost a couple of maybe 6" limbs. Silver maples suck! Could have been much worse. Our neighbors (the assholes) lost the middle 3d of a sizeable silver maple. Absolutely pancaked their trampoline. Another maple was down across the street, as well as an uprooted pine.
Was interesting - I had the TV on, and that is the first time I can recall hearing the klaxon announcing the National Emergency system you always hear them testing on the radio. Overrode what was on TV, and directed you to turn to a different station.
They had specific announcements for where the storm front was, and when it was expecting to hit each town as it moved SE. Then the tornado sirens went off.
I guess my kid will learn how to work a bow saw today! 
We had tornado sirens in Lincoln Park last night. Lincoln Park? WTF? There’s not supposed to be tornadoes in downtown Chicago!
Still without power. So, I’m posting from Starbucks before I go to the gym so I can take a shower. I hope the power comes on before the food in the refrigerator goes. Of course, I went grocery shopping yesterday, so I’ve got a nice full refrigerator to spoil.
So - I moved to eastern Florida in the summer of '04, just in time for the hurricanes. I landed in London the day of the Underground bombings, and now tornadoes in downtown Chicago after I moved back here. So, who wants a disaster? I think I can help.
I lived in Logan Square, in the 60s.
Was there damage?
Beautiful lightning show is right. We lost power for a few hours while we slept and woke up to find a god damn tree branch had snapped off and smashed my wife’s windshield.
Don’t worry. I still love you, summer storms.
We lost power here for awhile, and then had some sort of half-assed power for god only knows how long. I’ve never experienced that before.
The lightning storm was definitely impressive. My roommate asked if those were air sirens, and then we both concluded they were car alarms.
Quite interesting.
Yeah, we had quite the light show, too. The cat was not pleased - he spent most of the evening hiding out in the closet.
I was at Wrigley Field last night. The weather seemed great, then all of a sudden the skies opened up, the teams raced off the field as the ground crew raced on with the tarp.
The fans in the front all raced up to the concourse to get out of the downpour. We didn’t know how long it was going to last, so we started bringing up radar on our cellphones. It looked bad. Then we saw them start to use spikes to secure the tarp, and they started putting down sandbags .Because the husband had to work in the morning we decided to leave, and that’s when we heard security talking to staff telling them a high wind warning was about to be announced.
We took off fast, trying to get to our car that was parked close to the field at Taco Bell ($40 for non blocked access parking) Just before we reached the car sirens started wailing. We all thought it was a tornado and couldn’t believe the city actually had tornadoes. Those who know anything about how storms work understand how unlikely funnel clouds are in big cities.
We get in the car, and make it onto Addison. WGN then announces the sirens are something that haven’t been around too long, and they were placed in Wrigleyville for high wind warnings. Just as we start heading down the street it starts raining even harder. The rain is coming down sideways and we are creeping along and the same time trying to dodge tree limbs and garbage in the streets. The only time you can see anything is every few seconds as lighting bolts light up the sky. People are running all over the place, so in addition to the rain and debris you need to make sure an idiot does run in front of you. Meanwhile the sirens are still blaring.
It continues raining like crazy all the way to the expressway, by then it finally lightens up a little so we can see. We get treated to a great lighting show all the way home.
I had the windows open and it says something about how tired I was from the long weekend that I fell asleep in the middle of all this! Sorry for all those who don’t like thunder and such, I love it but I’ve never had anything really bad happen as a result of it. My power went out last year for a week but there was no lightning just rain and wind.
A more accurate statement would be those who know anything about statistics works understand how unlikely funnel clouds are in big cities; they take up a very small percentage of the total land area. Googling ‘tornado “large cities”’ gives the following hits as the first three cites:
Well, in last night’s festivities, it seems the basement flooded some. I’ve just moved into this apartment, and put a bunch of stuff in storage in the basement.
I’m about to go pull it out into the sun and see if I can assess the damage. Well, not all of it, but I don’t expect the freezer that wasn’t yet plugged in is damaged.
Fuck.