Chicagoland experienced two fast moving, strong storms Friday. Around 3:30pm in the afternoon there was a knock on my office door. A colleague was making sure I was aware we were being "strongly encouraged" to be out of the building before 4:00pm when the first of the storms was expected to hit Chicago's Loop. I left shortly before 4:00. It was just starting to rain and I felt obliged to open my umbrella within the first block on my way to Union Station. The rain was not particularly hard, though, and when I was outside I did not experience anything to suggest concern. The train left the station at 4:20. For a little more than two blocks the train tracks are under buildings. After coming out from underneath The Boeing Building the sun lights up the interior of the train cars. Not Friday. It was as though it was night time. I could not tell when the train came outside because it was so dark and the temperature differential caused the windows on the train to fog up. My son claims the temperature dropped twenty degrees Fahrenheit within ten minutes. I do not know if that is true, but I do know the thermometer at my office building showed 92°F when I left and when I got to my car in the northwest suburbs the temperature was reading 71°F. Well before the train got to my station the severe part of the storm had long since moved over Lake Michigan and northern Indiana. The twenty minutes I was on the train in Union Station must have been when the storm was so strong. I am attaching three pictures from
The Chicago Tribune showing the spectacular and ominous cloud formation that caused the commotion.
Uribe, Abel. "Strong Thunderstorms in Chicago Area - Chicagotribune.com."
Chicago Tribune Breaking News, Sports, Weather and Traffic in Chicago - Chicagotribune.com. The Chicago Tribune, 18 June 2010. Web. 20 June 2010. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-100618-storm-photos-pictures,0,233684.photogallery. Images 17 and 22
Garcia, Alex. "Strong Thunderstorms in Chicago Area - Chicagotribune.com."
Chicago Tribune Breaking News, Sports, Weather and Traffic in Chicago - Chicagotribune.com. The Chicago Tribune, 18 June 2010. Web. 20 June 2010. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-100618-storm-photos-pictures,0,233684.photogallery. Image 24
Okay, my son says the temperature drop was within seconds, not minutes. The wind went from 2 knots to 50 knots at the same time as the squall line passed over.
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