Still windy in Chicago..

[lago]

The wife and I left Austin on Saturday a.m. for a driving trip to Chicago to visit daughter & SIL. Overnited in Memphis on Saturday nite and hit Chicago late Monday nite(overnited Sunday in southern Il. with SIL's parents). Had 25+mph tail wind both days. Sure helped on the gas mileage.

Original plans were to help SIL winterize their sailboat on Saturday when pulled out of Lake Michigan. Might be Sunday or Monday before it is pulled out. Wind is not helping. Have had gusts up to 60mph in the area. We saw some geese flying sideways, wish I had a camera.

Hope the wind changes before we head back. Picked up a truck load of wood from SIL's father, mostly red oak, some white oak and cherry. some has a lot of knots & bad spots but it was FREE. Need all the help I can get on gas mileage.

Lago

[BobSch]

Sounds like a nice grab on the wood!

We had 63 mph gusts last night. A lot of tree limbs on the streets this morning. That's as close to a hurricane as I want to get!

[parnelli]

We've had windy days before but this is crazy! It's been 3 days of non-stop high winds. My garbage can was a block and a half down. Luckily I haven't lost any trees yet, unlike my neighbors.

I think it's supposed to let up tomorrow, so you should be good on the travel. I can't imagine what the mpg would be if someone had to drive cross country into this headwind...

From the Chicago Tribune weather site:

Here are some wind speeds as of 2 p.m. (in mph):

O'Hare: 49
River Grove: 57
Kenosha: 54
West Chicago: 54
Riverside: 54
Naperville: 53
Geneva/Hinsdale/Waukegan: 51
Schaumburg/McHenry: 49
Oak Lawn: 48
Beecher: 46
DeKalb: 47
South Elgin/Hoffman Estates: 48
Buffalo Grove: 47

[Ed62]

We're not far from Chicago, so we get just about the same thing they get. Today was still a little windy, but nothing like the last few days.

Ed

[Bruce Cohen]

I lived in Chicago for one winter. After that, I'll never complain about NY winters again.
It is so darn windy, certain street corners have ropes baracades to prevent you from being blown into traffic.
Also, when they gave the temperature, there was one for "lakefront" and one for the airport (further inland). The airport temp was always at least 10 degrees colder than the lake front.

I lived a block from the lake and when I left the apt bldg in the morning to go to work, I used to spread my arms out and let the wind carry me to the corner where I'd catch a bus or taxi to get to work. Of course I weighed a lot less then.

I froze my butt off while the "natives" were saying what a mild winter they were having, it was usually at least -8 degrees.

Bruce