Thermometers hit 103 degrees based on a consensus of area bank signs and car readouts Thursday. Official National Weather Service readings only hit 100 degrees at both O'Hare and Rockford meteorological stations. At DuPage Airport the mercury only made it to 98 degrees.
Thursday's blast-furnace temperatures sucked still more moisture from lawns and plant areas already sere from lack of rain for the last six weeks. That prompted LITH Village President Ed Plaza to appeal to local media (FEN being the only such present) to ask residents not to fool around with Fourth of July fireworks for fear of brushfires. "We need to quell that," said Plaza. "With the drought, the lawns and fields are so dry that we just need to refrain."
Huntley Mayor Chuck Sass had a different appeal. With water use at 5 million gallons per day in Huntley Thursday, Sass asked residents to quit watering their lawns. "The grass isn't dead," said Sass. "It'll come back once we get a little rain."
That may be a while yet. Forecasters predict a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms this afternoon rising to 40 percent tonight. That chance applies to a storm occurring somewhere in northern Illinois, not just the immediate area, however. Today's expected to be cooler than Thursday but, even so, the high's expected to be a sulty 92 degrees.
In the pic: Not only was Thursday hot, it was hot for a long time. This was the reading at 6 pm in Algonquin.
2 comments:
I can't understand the green lawn fetish of suburbanites (though I live in suburbia). Water is too expensive (and too valuable) to be throwing away in an attempt to keep the grass green.
I agree you can pay up to a $1.50 in some vending machines.
Sass can bite me!!! Can we stick a sparkler in his hat and call him Macaroni?
I wasn't going to water today but after reading this I think I'll go turn on the old sprinkler for an hour or two. "Sprinkling in the rain oh sprinkling in the rain what a glorious feeling I'm rebelling again"
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