Mid Latitude Suck-clone

It is May 11, 2006, and in Chicago, Illinois the temperature is a crisp 41, with gusting winds plunging the "Feels Like" meter to 32. That's freezing for all you novice meterologists out there. (0 degrees if you are a Celscius person). I wish there was a "Feels Like" meter that would give readings like: "Fucking cold, fucking wet, and fucking relentless." The green mass pictured above is swirling hatefully counter clockwise directly over my head. It moves neither East nor West, neither North nor South, it just spins and cries it's blowing, chilled tears all over the rooftops and roadways around me. It's starting to test my patience. Current conditions outside are not unlike the state of the atmosphere here in Chicago in the middle of November.

From what I learned in the best class in which I've ever been enrolled, ATMOS 120 (Severe and Unusual Weather), Chicagoans, Chi-subrubians, Milwaukeeians, Cheesers, Auto Workers, Steelies, folks from Ohio, and North-Indies are at war with a Mid-Latidue Cyclone. As defined by www.physicalgeography.net a MLC is a "Cyclonic storm that forms primarily in the middle latitudes. Its formation is triggered by the development of troughs in the polar jet stream. These storms also contain warm, cold and occluded fronts [in the above radar picture you can see all 3]. Atmospheric pressure in their center can get as low as 970 millibars." Now that is some low pressha!

Actual Diagram from UIUC's ATMOS 120

As well as making the weather here brutal at this very moment, MLC's are often responsible for those tempests people from the East coast have dubbed noreasters. "The Perfect Storm" that really messed with Marky Mark and George "The Boss" Clooney was a MLC. Really. For more info on MLC's click HERE.

I am utterly fascinated by weather. One of my hobbies is tracking local storms as they move through my immediate areola. My eyes light up at the prospect of a good Super-cell T-Storm. Doppler radar is in my top 5 bestest inventions of all time, sandwiched right inbetween Cheddar Chesse and College Hoops. Mmmmmmmm, Doppler Sandwich...... sorry. What I'm tring to say is that despite my affinity for weather in general, this storm has overstayed it's welcome, and while I respect the chilly arsenal which it wields, I wish it would move on. Get to steppin' MLC, get to steppin'.