Goose Lake Weather Blog

The Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak on  August 12th.  Check out the skies before sunrise over the next few mornings. Good luck viewing. More info can be found at the space.com web page.

The grass is actually turning green again thanks to recent rainfall. Our monthly total is now up to 3.93 inches.

A long-lived line of storms known as a “derecho” affected the area early Monday morning. A peak gust of 43 mph was measured at the Goose Lake Weather station. Higher gusts of 70+ mph were measured in Morris and other portions of Grundy and La Salle counties.  Downed trees and tree damage were reported in Morris.

Rising temperatures into the 90’s are expected this week. Southerly winds will also usher in more humid air. High pressure will suppress any thunderstorm development until Friday night into Saturday.

Thunderstorms yesterday and last night produced another 1.04 inches of rainfall. The garden is happy. More rain is possible late tonight and Saturday before a cold front brings cooler and drier air in for Sunday.

We finally had some rainfall with a storm total of 0.64 inch.  The majority of the rain fell in the early morning hours of July 8th. While certainly not a major rainfall, it was the most rain we’ve had in a 24 hr period since June 9th(!). We could use some more.

OK, maybe this image is a bit extreme but things are getting dry in the Goose Lake area. With only about 60 percent of normal rainfall since June, the lack of moisture is evident with scorched lawns and cracks in the ground. It’s ironic as the same conditions that made for some great outdoor weather — low dew points and abundant sunshine, are contributing to high evaporation rates and drying the topsoil.

The latest meteorological computer models hint at over 1 inch of rain over the next few days but I wouldn’t put that garden hose away just yet. Rainfall forecasting in the summer time is extremely difficult as it tends to be very localized. The models were indicating some heavy rain over the area last week and we ended up missing it all. Let’s hope we get lucky this time.

The weather should be great for this 4th of July holiday with mostly sunny skies   and highs in  the mid to upper 70’s. The weekend will be warmer with forecast highs in the mid to upper 80’s by Sunday.

Looking for things to do in Grundy County? Check out the Grundy County Fair.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Despite torrential rainfall occurring in the midwest during the month of June, we ended the month with only 2.62 inches of rainfall. This is about 1.5 inches below normal for June. Here are some other climate statistics for the month of June 2008:

Averages\Extremes for the month of June 2008

———————————————————————————————
Average temperature     = 71.8 °F
Average humidity        = 75 %
Average dewpoint        = 62.3 °F
Average barometer       = 29.864 in.
Average windspeed       = 5.7 mph
Average gustspeed       = 8.7 mph
Average direction       = 211 ° (SSW)
Maximum rain per minute = 0.040 in on day 09 at time 00:49
Maximum temperature     = 90.9 °F on day 12 at time 15:51
Minimum temperature     = 48.1 °F on day 19 at time 05:49
Maximum humidity        = 100 % on day 24 at time 07:09
Minimum humidity        = 31 % on day 02 at time 17:57
Maximum pressure        = 30.21  in. on day 24 at time 10:15
Minimum pressure        = 29.50  in. on day 04 at time 05:45
Maximum avg windspeed   = 31.1 mph from 180 °( S )  on day 06 at time 14:38
Maximum gust speed      = 52.9 mph from 180 °( S ) on day 06 at time 14:38
Maximum heat index      = 99.3 °F on day 08 at time 17:30

I made some changes to the Goose Lake Weather mobile weather page for display on your cell or PDA. Hopefully it will look better now. Some other changes are likely.  Now you can check out the weather at Goose Lake when away from home. As always, comments/suggestions appreciated.

I hope to make some major changes to the look and feel of the web site by the end of the summer. Stay tuned…

Do you like observing weather from your own backyard? If so, we need you for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network…known as CoCoRaHS. You are required to purchase an official 4 inch diameter CoCoRaHS rain gauge ( $22 plus S&H)for accuracy and consistency. Data is entered via a web site and you can see your report and all the other CoCoRaHS daily reports in the county, state, and country. To learn more about this great volunteer program, go to the CoCoRaHS web page.

A CoCoRaHS training session will be held in Grundy County on:
Thursday, July 17, 6:30 p.m. - Morris, IL

Training session has been canceled. This session has been rescheduled for Oct 1, 2008 starting at 6:30 PM at the same location.

Grundy County Soil & Water Conservation District Office
3605 N. Illinois Route 47, Suite B
Morris, IL

To register, call the SWCD office at 815-942-0359, ext 3. Registration deadline is Friday, Sept 26.

Directions to the SWCD office can be found here.

I hope to see you there!