Weather: December 2008 Archives

There must be some bad juju surrounding us to get the weather hand we were dealt the past few days. Talk about a weird and wacky weather zone.

First, we get a week of heavy snow, ice and below zero temperatures. Then comes a high Saturday of nearly 60 degrees in Lake County accompanied by a ton of rain mixed with fog coming off the snow left on the ground. If that was snow on Saturday, The Hound would still be digging out The Doghouse. Yowza! did it pour. And, with the ground frozen, there was little places the rain could go.

Area streams and rivers rose rapidly, although you certainly can't tell what the flood levels on the Des Plaines River at Russell and Gurnee were. The gauges which measure rising levels have been on the fritz, of late.

Then it was back into the high 40s and into a fairly quiet week, if you consider near-single digit temperatures quiet for the new year. The Hound does.

Geez, give them two inches or more of the white stuff and Lake County motorists seem to become wheel jockeys bent on proving they're the dumbest drivers in the world. Or at least the dumbest driving in snow.

Lighten up folks. Driving around the county the past few days during these serial snowstorms, The Hound noticed a number of vehicles in the ditches and witnessed one Cadillac go sliding into a snowbank. What's with you drivers? Whiteouts be damned! must be your rallying cry.

The Hound was passed several times by cars, not 4x4s mind you, which looked like they were going faster than a dry pavement speed limit. The Hound could tell that because they were fishtailing, slipping and sliding, with the pedal to the metal. Yikes!

These bumper-car drivers apparently have a death wish. Just don't take The Hound and other unsuspecting drivers with you. And merry Christmas, snow jockeys.

Well, actually The Hound does call this bit of frigid air the first day of winter cold, very cold. Arctic, bitter, bone-chilling, you supply the adjective. At Waukegan Regional Airport the low was -7; the high -3. The high last year Dec. 21 at the airport was 50; the low 36. That's not cold.

At 3 p.m., two of us compared our in-car thermometers at a local watering hole just before the Vikings/Falcons game got interesting. One said -3; the other -4. They were parked next to each other. Go figure.

The Hound doesn't mind the cold weather, but not this early. Not in December. January, OK. You can't even spread salt when it's below zero; doesn't work. And, man, that wind howling through The Hound's dog house caused a mean headache. Or perhaps it was the Black Haus schnapps, something every should imbibe during a cold spell. Brrr!

Remember, though this is only December. The really cold stuff is still in store.

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