We don't personally believe in taking weather advice from a groundhog and it seems like Friend of Chicagoist and local Fox meteorologist Amy Freeze agrees. Still, we love the movie Groundhog Day, so that's something. more ›

We dodged a bullet this year when Pitchfork Music Fest - commonly known as "Sweatfork" - turned out to be, well, downright pleasant. We hoped, wished, and prayed that we'd be so lucky for this year's Lollapalooza. It looks we're wrong and in a big way. Instead, this weekend is promising the summer's hottest weather to date. Don't be surprised if the National Weather Service issues a Heat Index Advisory for Saturday and Sunday. more ›

The second round of storms for today has just moved through (the above pics were taken this morning looking north towards Navy Pier) and another round is right behind it. This got us wondering about tornadoes downtown. Last month, our pal Amy Freeze warned us of the possibility and we dug back into our archives for this old Ask Chicagoist post. And, just FYI, the northeast Illinois area is under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 3 p.m. while northwest Indiana is under a Tornado Watch until 7 p.m. (EDT). (Thanks, Lauren!) more ›

I was discussing cumulonimbus cloud formations with our pal Amy Freeze last night via email when she pointed me to this article about former Chicago Fire player Andy Williams and his crusade to find a bone marrow donor for his wife Marcia, who is suffering from a rare form of leukemia (the New York Times also covered Williams last fall). Williams, now with Real Salt Lake, and his wife are now preparing for a June 12th transfusion, hoping and praying the match will take. more ›

Several weeks ago, I tried to start up a feud with WFLD Fox 32 Meteorologist Amy Freeze to stir up some excitement in our Chicago media fantasy baseball league. Needless to say, Freeze stayed classy and didn't take the bait while we went on to split our first head-to-head match-up and my team promptly tanked. Amy has bounced around the country, reporting for stations in Denver, Portland, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia before winding up in the Windy City, having covered not just weather, but a variety of stories including the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. more ›