Sometimes the usual west-to-east progression of weather systems gives way to a “blocked” pattern, and that has been the case for several days. A huge, stationary area of high pressure sprawls across the North Atlantic Ocean approximately midway between North America and Europe, and weather systems across the United States have stalled. Low pressure nearly stationary over New Mexico drove chilly, moist air into the Colorado Rockies and put down 1-3 feet of snow across Colorado. A trough of low pressure and stationary frontal boundary just off the U.S. East Coast have served as the focus for flooding rains on the eastern seaboard.
Damp and hazy in Chicago
Chicago sits damp and hazy in a moist air mass sprawled tranquilly between the dissipated Colorado snowstorm and the East Coast rains. It’s an ideal environment for widespread stratus clouds, often so near to the ground that they obscure the upper portions of Chicago’s downtown skyscrapers.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
