The CTA's Weather Warning: Necessary?

By Margaret Lyons in News on Oct 18, 2007 10:23PM

Did you get an e-mail from the CTA a little while ago? Some customers did with a severe weather warning.

Dear CTA Customer,

This email is to alert you that there is currently severe weather, including heavy rain and high winds, forecasted to reach Chicago during the afternoon and evening rush-hour period today, October 18. It is possible that this severe weather could impact CTA bus and train service. Please take this into account when planning your commute, and please allow for extra travel time on CTA service this evening.

For the most up-to-date CTA travel information, please check transitchicago.com and your local news outlet.

Thank you, Chicago Transit Authority

We're trying to figure out why some riders got that e-mail and others didn't. Anyone know?

We're hearing it's hailing downtown, but it's pretty nice out still just northwest of there. And where's our damn tornado, Skilling? Tom says we're in the "dry slot" of the storm, which is why it's so windy. "Not all parts of the Chicago area are likely to see severe weather and the most widespread severe weather is likely to be to our east in Indiana and Michigan. But, given the presence of such strong winds through the atmosphere today, any thunderstorm has a better than usual chance of producing strong gusts beyond the powerful non-thunderstorm wind gusts already occurring." The radar map still has stormy blotches on it, which means some areas around us are already getting rained on (though it seems to be mostly light to moderate rainfall). The storm should clear up by 8pm or so, though.

"Imminent deluge Chicago" by sfmoe