Results tagged “lightning”

Behold, the coolest, most mesmerizing 110 seconds of your day (well, since this).

A fire on the west side of Joliet destroyed a four-unit condo and left two couples homeless Saturday morning, according to the Herald.

During their peak, Monday's storms produced 800 strikes per minute (!!!) and all-told produced 90,000 strikes across Northern Illinois. Ron Holle, meteorologist at the National Lightning Detection Network, says the 10,000 strikes recorded within a 10-mile of radius, "...comes out to probably half of the whole year's lightning in that area." And what say Skilling? "There was no precedent for this. In every way imaginable, that storm last night was in its own league." Fire departments across the area blamed the lightning for starting dozens of fires.

             

Last night's severe storms meant lots of lightning.

So far in 2008, 8 people have died after being struck by lightning. Thank God it's Lightning Safety Week! Prepare to have your awareness raised!

Utterly mesmerizing video by cshimala. Amazing. [via]

The Blackhawks benefited from the return of Martin Havlat on Wednesday night. Havlat, who had missed 22 games due to a shoulder injury, scored Jjust 43 seconds into his return to action on a backhander to the upper-left corner of the net to give the Hawks a 1-0 edge on the Tampa Bay Lightning. He would go on to score again in just 12 seconds into the second period, scoring off a shot from the...

For the first time in a long while, Chicago is seeing success from both the Chicago Blackhawks (NHL) and the Chicago Wolves (AHL). The Wolves are off to a 13-1-1 start, giving them the best winning percentage in the league--which should come as no surprise to their faithful fans. On the other hand, it is a surprise that after a quarter of the season, the Blackhawks aren't breaking their fans' hearts. The Hawks have skated...

Crazy weather continues today. We’re normally hovering around 60 degrees this time of year, but today’s forecast is calling for temperatures near 80, up from yesterday’s O’Hare high of 73 degrees, which was 13 degrees above normal. And if things go as the meteorologists are anticipating, we’ll be an entire climate zone above normal. That's fountain playing weather, people. But this craziness won’t last for long. They’re calling for strong southerly winds, sustained at 30...

Yesterday's big storm? Well, not as big as we had thought it would be. But 2,300 ComEd customers are without power on the South Side, there was some property damage downstate, and an 11-year-old on the West Side was struck by lightning. He's listed as being in good condition. Maybe they should take him to UIC's Lightning Injury Lab? We cannot recommend this reading list highly enough. What happens when people are struck by lightning?...

A ridiculously severe storm may be heading our way. A low pressure system is moving over the Plains like it owns the place, and with the "air [being] drawn aloft" strengthening southerly winds, we're looking at one hell of a storm system in our area on Thursday. Severe weather of the regular kind (high winds, heavy rains) could be coupled with severe weather of the not-so-regular kind (tornadoes, armageddon-like hail). What makes this extra-special? Autumn...

With the optimism of a glass half-full, the American Gladiator LIVES! And the spirit of the American Gladiator can now live within you. But we can’t grab the Funions and park on the sofa in front of the TV just yet. In 2008, NBC will bring back the weekly series, originally aired from 1989 to 1996. Episodes still run in syndication on ESPN Classic. If you want to channel a Gladiator, NBC will host a...

Seriously, guys, Burton Natarus is not on Chicago's City Council anymore, but it's not like he's dead. Eugene Schulter and Walter Burnett must have banked on his promise to spend the summer kayaking, however, because it didn't take them a hot minute to go after one of the cornerstones of his legacy: dogs, their shit and people who eat around it. Schulter re-introduced a stalled ordinance ("Seriously, guys, I haven't even walked out of the...

We've only cried twice at rock shows. Once was when the Flaming Lips opened for Beck, and something about "Lightning Strikes The Postman" (was it the strobes? the bullhorn? the crowd's empathic explosion? we don't know) caused our tear ducts to let loose and lose control. The other time was Friday's Arcade Fire show at the Chicago Theatre, as we were surrounded by as unlikely a crowd as we ever expected to see rejoicing in...

Considering what it's like outside, we were tempted to name this week's column Awesome Day and Decent Nights, but then we looked over the listings and realized Awesome Days and Awesome Nights would be more appropriate.

How 'bout that weather last night, people? Wet and/or windy enough for ya? We lost track of how many times our umbrella caved out on us, only to cave back in on the next unholy blast of wind. In situations like that, we find the appropriate music to be somewhat helpful. Good stuff.

Driving up Lake Shore Drive in the middle of Monday night's electrical storms gave us some pretty terrific views of lightning behind the skyline. It looked so cool, we almost forgot we were totally freaked out. Even cooler is the image abmarfia captured at St. Gertrude's church during the storm. The Wrath of God indeed. Chicagoist brings you staff images of the city in our Focus section, and we want to offer another perspective in...

Chicago is a city full of iconic imagery. From its skyline and architecture, to its beaches and boulevards, to its trains and neighborhoods, take one look at any of those and you know that you're looking at home. The Maxwell Street Market once deserved to be listed among all those other landmarks. These days, Maxwell Street itself is unrecognizable. All traces of its open market glory were buried long ago by urban planning and the...

Chicagoist awakened Sunday morning to grey skies and rain. Luckily, Day Two of the Intonation Music Festival was anything but dreary. Following are some recaps of the performances that we liked best (and, boy, narrowing that down was a hard decision). Before the clouds even had a chance to dissipate, we were blown away by the Tyrades. Finally, a pure and simple punk band. We loved Jenna Tyrade's screams and the whole band's assaultive attitude....

Our favorite weatherman, Tom Skilling, who always had the mad skills when it comes to laying down an accurate weather forecast, tells us today by way of the Trib that along with our potential high of 70 degrees, the "wind gusts are to reach 30 m.p.h. at ground level." From boasting about getting the World's Fair 1893, to a headline in the Cleveland Gazette in 1885, there are many different references to Chicago as the...

"To the victor goes the spoils", indeed. Jon Garland avoided arbitration this offseason, signing a three-year, $29 million dollar contract with the White Sox yesterday. This year Garland had the breakout season that everyone expected of him when he was drafted by the Cubs then later traded to the Sox. Even though he had a subpar second half, Garland still finished with a record of 18-10 with a 3.50 ERA and a league-leading three...

Chicagoist's little desktop WeatherBug is currently showing a temperature of 59 degrees, along with a little cloud and tiny, menacing lightning bolt. Those conditions fall well outside the parameters of what we consider ideal swimming weather, but we're still excited that the Chicago Park District's stellar collection of lakefront beaches officially opens today.

Back in January we wrote a post about signs in the downtown area that warned passers-by to watch for falling ice. At the time we made the joke that they were as useful as "Watch Out For Lightning!" signs. We stand by the joke, but now we think we may have stumbled upon an entrepreneurial opportunity.

Campaign finance is always a tricky issue, but Governor Rod Blagojevich has become a major lightning Rod, especially when it comes to election dough. Besides the fact that he's got a reported $10 million war chest, his father-in-law Ald. Dick Mell (33rd) accused him of trading contributions for state board appointments, and then in early spring he promised campaign finance reform that would "rock this state." Since his main 2002 campaign pledge was to "end business as usual," folks expect the usual to end.

New York, Chicago, Boston, DC: They all have skyscrapers, they all have snow. But of all the midwestern and east coast cold-weather cities we've visited, Chicago is the only one where we've seen falling ice signs everywhere. It's like the Cool Kid Club for buildings. You're not the shit unless you've got a sign out. We know that every year people are hurt by ice as it falls off of buildings around the Loop...

You know those hip "Truth" ads that pit urban, activist youths with attitudes against the evil old white men of tobacco? (Doesn't the government subsidize tobacco farms?) Last year one of the group's commercials was for joke product "ShardsO'Glass Freezer Pops" and at the end it said "What if all companies sold products like tobacco." Apparently hip, urban, activist youths don't know about question marks.