The [Tuesday] Papers

Wow, one of the rare days when I look for weather news in the papers and there's barely anything there. The sirens went off! C'mon!

I was also a bit surprised at how the local news shops didn't cut into regular programming last night. The sirens went off! C'mon!

Seriously, I was wondering if the Sox had just clinched the pennant or if I should head for shelter.

Fox News Chicago did cut in for the weather and did a remarkably unsensational job - and I mean that in the best way possible - and there was, of course, CLTV, which was its usually boring self.
I've never understood why the Tribune Company didn't make more of CLTV. There are loads of possibilities, but obviously they don't think they'll get a return on their investment. What a waste.

Anyway, one of the cool things that Fox had was tracking of lightning strikes - more than 500 last time I looked.

Oh, and I thought I heard a report of a tornado touchdown near Schiller Park - I called a friend to say I hoped it didn't hit the Twinkie plant - and that a cop called in a funnel cloud over the Kennedy.

COMMENT 11:54 A.M.: From Scott Buckner: Fox dedicated a major and continuous chunk of time Power Doppler-ing the storm and identifying in real time the locations of atmospheric rotations that can spawn funnel clouds and tornadoes. It also had the path predicted at least 30 minutes before you heard the sirens. This sort of thing came in handy (and was astoundingly accurate) both last night and a few months ago, when I watched the tornado that blew thru the south suburbs pass down the road from me. Fox had its location tracked dead-on in real time and correctly predicted long before it arrived.

When there's really scary weather, WFLD's Power Doppler-ing coverage is simulcast on WCIU (Channel 26) and, if I recall, WPWR (Channel 50)

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The Scene At Wrigley

Bus vs. Flood

Angela's Flooded Apartment

Through The Skylight
New from M. Night Shyamalan!

Club Mix

Power Outage
"ComEd crews said about 238,000 customers - 102,000 in Chicago - remain without power this morning due to the powerful storms that blew through overnight," the Daily Herald reports.

Zoned Out
"In the city of Chicago there are 112 Civil Defense sirens in six zones ready to warn residents of severe weather," CBS2 reports.

Siren Song
R.I.P. The Thunderbolt.

Programming Note
I'll be appearing today on a panel about citizen journalism as part of the annual Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication at Columbia College. The panel is scheduled for 3:25 p.m. on the second floor at 33 East Congress.

The Beachwood Tip Line: Like making a citizen's arrest.

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