We're in for nasty weather

The weather in the Chicago area the last couple days has been nothing short of abominable. Here's the approximate pattern, as seen through my eyes:

9 am: Clear, blue sky; temperature in the high 70s/low 80s. Looks like a gorgeous day.

1 pm: Similar to before, but ten degrees hotter and twice as humid. No longer a terribly pleasant day, but at least a tolerable one.

3 pm: Out the office window, the sky goes totally dark. Rain pours so heavily that nearby buildings cannot even be seen.

7 pm: Rain continues with minimal periods of abatement. Near-constant lightning. Rain runs the gamut between total deluge and normal heavy shower.

10 pm: Rain stops; skies clear in preparation for next morning's bullshit niceness.

I've missed a lot of the absolute worst; Leah describes a pretty crazy situation from this afternoon. I can confirm that it certainly looked as bad as it was; as noted above, the rain was so heavy at times that I couldn't see farther than the next building over, which is completely fucking insane. But I've managed to take lunch early enough to avoid the punctual mid-afternoon storms, and by the time I've left at least the worst of the wind has already died down. I saw a lot of after-effect today, though.




Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. No, that's not my car, thank God, but it is the car that was/is parked on the street pretty much directly in front of my apartment. And when I came home today, at about 8:00, it was pretty well covered by this tree which had been uprooted. Fortunately for the car and its owner, most of what was really on the car was a large branch, and even then some wires had stopped the branch from hitting the car too hard, although frankly I'd be even more worried by the wires at this point.

Still: damn. I know I've only been here seven years and only four summers, but this has to be the worst spell of weather I've seen yet. Usually this sort of stuff happens once a year; this was twice in two days, and according to the forecast we may have more on the way. Maybe tomorrow I'll at least think to take an umbrella rather than letting blue sky in the morning fool me. (Blue sky at morning, sailors take warning, right?)