The Daily Parker

So far in 2011, Chicago has not only experienced its wettest year ever, but we've almost reached our annual normal rainfall total:

With the record (283 mm) July rains adding on to already above-normal precipitation prior to this month, Chicago's official total for 2011 has reached 858 mm - or 351 mm above normal at this point in the season. Chicago's official rain gage at the O'Hare International Airport observing site has now registered 93 percent of the normal annual 921 mm.

Today, however, it's sunny and clear, and not quite as hot as it has been recently.

Like most American citizens, I have three representatives in Congress: one in the House, and two in the Senate. My representative is Mike Quigley; the Senate Majority Leader, Dick Durbin; and the other guy, Mark Kirk. I've given money to everyone who's run against Kirk in the last six years, and voted for one of them[1], and I've given money to and voted for my other Senator and my Congressman every time I've been able. Thus, I'm batting .667, which isn't bad.

And why do I want Kirk to retire? Why do I think he completely fails to represent the interests of the State of Illinois, and more specifically, my interests? In part because he says dumb crap like this:

In a potential missile combat scenario between NATO and Iran, Russia is thoroughly irrelevant. So Russian concerns about what we do and not do about the Iranian threat are interesting but largely irrelevant.

O RLY? Does Senator Kirk know that Iran borders Russia, that Russia considers Iran within its sphere of influence, that Russia has sold weapons to Iran, and all that aside, that Russia has just as many missiles as NATO?

Kirk's latest polysyllabic fart, by the way, came in response to a remark the Russian Ambassador's made about him yesterday:

Today in the Senate, I met with Senators Jon Kyl and Mark Kirk. The meeting is very useful because it shows that the alternative to Barack Obama is a collapse of all the programs of cooperation with Russia. Today, I had the impression that I was transported in a time machine back several decades, and in front of me sat two monsters of the Cold War, who looked at me not through pupils, but targeting sights.

Hyperbole aside, I think Ambassador Rogozin is correct: Kirk's politics are an unholy blend of 1963 and 1850, not what either Illinois or the country needs right now.

[1] Kirk represented the 10th District for 9 years, and I supported his opponent Dan Seals twice. However, I live in the 5th District, so I couldn't vote for Seals. Pity; both elections were close.

(Corrected typo, and length of Kirk's time in the House.)

Remember Tuesday, when we were only 13 mm away from having the wettest July in history? Thanks to a storm that dumped a squishy 259 mm of rain on nearby Dubuque, Iowa, Chicago's rainfall this month reached 248 mm, beating the old record of 243 mm set in 1889.

Today's forecast calls for even bloody more rain:

Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 32°C. Heat index values as high as 37°C. Southwest wind between 10 and 15 km/h. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between 5 and 7.5 mm possible.

At 7am, the temperature of 23°C comes with a dewpoint temperature of 22°C, which is the scientific way of saying it's warm and sticky.

Let's see...warmer summers, more extreme weather, much more moisture in the atmosphere...saw that one coming.

Chicago is still experiencing weather more suited for the jungles of Cambodia:

For a 12th consecutive day Wednesday, Chicago's lows have registered 22°C or higher—the first time that's happened in 12 years and only the fourth time such a long string of warm nighttime lows has been observed at Midway Airport since 1928.

And it's still raining: another 111 mm fell on parts of the area this morning.

A weekend in Canada starts to look very appealing...

Chicago this year has not only gotten almost enough rain to hit a new record, but it's also gotten more than enough heat:

July's 230 mm of rain at O'Hare places the month only 13 mm away from July's 122 year old record of 243 mm recorded in 1889. A more typical July would have a rainfall tally closer to 67 mm by now—just a third as much as has fallen this month. ...

July's opening 26 days are averaging 26.2°C. That makes the month the warmest at O'Hare since weather readings were first archived at the site beginning in 1959. The 26.2°C average ranks as the 4th warmest July 1-26's over the full term of Chicago weather records spanning 141 years and taken at 12 different sites in the city since 1871.

Hot and wet: my favorite. (There's a joke in there somewhere...) When is October?

Welcome to the semi-annual update of the Chicago sunrise chart. (You can get one for your own location at http://www.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx.)

You can get sunrise information for your location at wx-now.com.

...to go somewhere else. Yesterday's final, official figure: 208 mm, a full 43 mm more than the rainfall that caused the record floods in August 1987.

And it's not over yet.

Today has set the record as the wettest day in Chicago history, and (a) it's only 11am and (b) more rain is coming:

Overnight rains that approached 178 mm over northern Cook County broke several impressive Chicago records. 176 mm of precipitation has been measured at O'Hare International Airport since Midnight making today, Chicago's wettest calandar day in modern weather history.

I'm looking for community input.

Mostly because of business travel, but also because I have signed up for almost every reward program that American Airlines offers, this year I expect to earn around 200,000 frequent-flyer miles. I need to spend them. And when best to spend them then off-season, in late November or early December, when people aren't traveling much?

But where to go? American and its partner oneworld carriers fly non-stop from Chicago to about 95 destinations, ranging in distance from Milwaukee to Delhi, India.

So here are my rules for this long weekend in November or December: the destination must be 12 hours total flying time or closer; outside the Lower 48; avoid the infamous Newark-to-Kennedy connection that American loves to inflict on people using miles; no visa requirement; and nowhere I've been before. Oh, and it has to be somewhere I actually want to go.

Here's the preliminary list, with non-stop flights from Chicago listed first:

• Amman, Jordan
• Calgary, Alb.
• Cancún, Mexico
• Madrid, Spain
• Manchester, U.K. (i.e., Scotland)
• México City
• Montréal
• Ottawa
• Tokyo
• Toronto
• Bucharest, Romania (x LHR)
• Budapest, Hungary (x JFK)
• Buenos Aires (x MIA)
• Curação (x MIA)
• Copenhagen, Denmark (x LHR)
• Honolulu (x LAX)
• Panama City (x MIA)
• Quito, Ecuador (x MIA)
• San Jose, Costa Rica (x DFW)
• San Jose Cabo, Mexico (x LAX)
• Santiago, Chile (x JFK)
• Stockholm, Sweden (x LHR)
• Tel Aviv, Israel (x LHR)
• Vienna, Austria (x LHR)
• Zurich, Switzerland (x JFK)

(I'm leaning towards the places in bold.) Thoughts?

It appears the air conditioners back at IDTWHQ have failed, while I'm 1,700 km away:

The chart starts at 7pm Chicago time Tuesday. The squiggle shows the backup air conditioner cycling on and off while it's in "energy saving" mode. That stops around 2pm yesterday, when, I imagine, the backup failed. Then, at 8:30pm last night, the main seems to have stopped.

I'll be leaving San Antonio on an earlier flight. I just hope the A/C units have simply stopped, and that they'll start again when I turn them on. Chicago's forecast calls for a high of 34°C today only going down to 24°C overnight. But without cooling, Inner Drive's poor servers may not last another two hours...