It's hard to imagine that after 2008 started on such a stormy note, with the EF-3 tornado affecting Poplar Grove just seven days into the year, that severe weather has been noticeable absent in the Stateline so far this Spring. I can only recall two or three days since the beginning of April in which severe weather has occurred in any substantial manner. Now hey, I'm not complaining one bit about this, but it's just a bit strange how quiet this year has been.

Our good friends at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Chicago has put together some very interesting research about how this severe weather season compares to the previous five seasons up to this date, and you'll find their findings to be quite telling!

So far, according to National Weather Service reports, there have only been 16 severe weather reports (hail, wind, and tornadoes) in the NWS Chicago's forecast area. The five year average for the same time period is more than five times that! Now, just a bit of a side note, this does not include severe weather reports from our Western Counties (Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Carroll, and Whiteside) or our Wisconsin Counties. That said, even there, it's been a quiet season thus far!

Below, you'll find an excellent breakdown in graphical form courtesy of the National Weather Service Chicago. This is a tally of all the severe weather reports received by that office during the March 1-May 15 time period, and how this year compares to previous years.

It's fascinating to look back at 2004, to see just how active a spring that was! Of course, you may remember, one of the most noteworthy events in our area's weather history took place that year. That was the April 20th, 2004 Utica tornado. Many of the severe weather reports that came from that year did come from that significant outbreak that day.

2006 and 2007 also featured rather active springs, while 2003 was relatively quiet. Why do I bring up 2003? Because even though that spring was a bit calmer than others in recent times, that summer went on to be very turbulent. Of course, nobody can forget the July 5, 2003 storm that caused widespread damage to the City of Rockford and surrounding areas, and of course did major damage to 23 WIFR. My point in mentioning this is that even though it's been quiet so far, there's absolutely no reason to believe that we've seen the last of mother nature's fury. While we hope that this summer will be as quiet as the spring's been thus far...there are no guarantees!

Many thanks to our colleagues at the National Weather Service for their great work in sharing these fascinating findings!