Weather Story

Dry and Cool Thanksgiving

River Ice Spotters Wanted

The unseasonably cool conditions will continue through Thanksgiving, but a brief warmup is expected for the weekend. Thanksgiving will be dry, but rain chances begin Friday afternoon, with widespread showers on Friday night.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Chicago/Romeoville, IL is looking for individuals that live or work along rivers to become part of our River Ice Spotter network. The rivers most impacted by ice jams are the Kankakee, Fox, Des Plaines, Du Page, Rock and Pecatonica Rivers. Spotters along other area rivers are welcome to participate as well. River ice spotters provide valuable data on ice cover and ice jam flooding to our office. Ice jams can result in rapid and devastating flooding. Although the NWS does monitor automated river gages, they may not accurately reflect the conditions upstream and downstream of a river gage due to the isolated nature of ice jams. It is also important to know the extent of the current ice cover and other conditions. This kind of information can only be obtained from visual observations. Under no circumstances are river ice spotters to actually go out on the ice! Your safety is important to us. Observations should be made from a safe location only. River ice spotters will receive training materials that will cover ice formation and ice reporting procedures. Internet access is required. Reports are made every Monday morning before 9:00 am, December 1 through March 31. If you are interested please contact the National Weather Service Chicago/Romeoville office. E-mail nws.chicago@noaa.gov or call 815-834-1435 (8am-8pm). Please include your name, address, phone number, and email.