CHAMPAIGN – Snowblowers and shovels were in action across Central Illinois on Friday. People are digging out after a two-day winter storm that brought 8 to 12 inches of snow to Champaign-Urbana, Danville, Decatur, Springfield, Bloomington and most parts of central Illinois. According to a tweet from the Illinois State Climatologist, the snowstorm erased major…
This story was updated Tuesday at 5:45 p.m. We will update as new weather information is posted. URBANA – The National Weather Service in Central Illinois has issued a Wind Chill Advisory for Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. The wind chill is the temperature it “feels like” outside when combined with wind. Wind chills in…
This post was updated Saturday at 11:15 a.m. It will be updated as the National Weather Service updates its forecasts. URBANA – Meteorologists are predicting Central Illinois will receive measurable snowfall on Friday afternoon and evening. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory from Friday at 6:00 p.m. until Saturday at noon…
Updated Saturday at 10:15 p.m. This post will be updated as new forecasts are posted. CHAMPAIGN – On Saturday afternoon and evening, meteorologists are predicting much of Central Illinois will see freezing rain and icy roadways. The National Weather Service in Central Illinois has issued a Winter Weather Advisory from 12:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. on Saturday. …
URBANA – If you felt like December’s weather was mild – you’re right. According to provisional data, December 2021 was the fifth warmest December on record. The average statewide temperature was 39.4 degrees Fahrenheit – more than nine degrees above average. It was the warmest December on record in Carbondale, the third warmest in St….
CHAMPAIGN – Many Central Illinois communities are opening warming centers so people without regular shelter are not exposed to subzero temperatures settling into the area. The National Weather Service in Central Illinois forecasts a low around 10 degrees and wind chill values as low as -4 on Wednesday night/Thursday morning in Champaign Urbana. Temperatures will…
Updated Saturday at 12:35 a.m. URBANA – Meteorologists issued several tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings on Friday evening. An approaching cold front and warm moist air clashed, spawning severe weather in Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky late Friday. There are early reports of damage in the Illinois towns of Windsor and Gays in Moultrie County…
URBANA – U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm stopped in Urbana on Thursday as part of her two-day tour of Illinois energy facilities. She listened carefully as researchers at the university’s Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory described how they turn sugar cane into fuel. “What today is about is seeing what the opportunities are and building…
DANVILLE – About 30 people attended a public meeting in Danville on Thursday afternoon to hear plans to clean up three coal ash sites. Texas-based Vistra Energy took over control of the old Dynegy site in 2018 following a corporate merger. Dynegy closed its coal-fired power plant along the Middlefork River back in 2011 leaving…
ROLLA, Mo. — Chris Brundick looks at a few inches of water running through a low lying strip of land on his 450 acres in south central Missouri and sees a ditch. “This is hardly a creek, and this, in my opinion, should not be classified as a Water of the U.S.,” Brundick said. The…
CHAMPAIGN — Do you know what’s in your drinking water? Depending on where you live, you could be ingesting contaminants linked to cancer, brain damage and other serious health effects. That’s why scientists at the Environmental Working Group developed the Tap Water Database – a searchable tool, based on zip code, that tells you what…
GIBSON CITY – In August, nine inches of rain dumped on one of Randy Aberle’s fields of corn and soybeans near Gibson City, Illinois. “We had some areas in those fields that the water was four feet deep,” he says. Luckily, he says, those fields have enough slope that the water drained off within a…
CHAMPAIGN — Sunlight and water power two new buses in the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District fleet. Champaign-Urbana is one of the first transit agencies in the country to adopt zero-emissions, hydrogen buses. “I’ve always been a big science fiction fan,” said the district’s managing director, Karl Gnadt. “Now, this isn’t quite Star Trek-level technology. But…
A century ago, people throughout the Midwest could hear the high-pitched staccato call of the ivory-billed woodpecker echoing in old-growth forests throughout the Mississippi River basin, from Montana to Louisiana. Now that call has been permanently silenced. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently declared 23 species, including birds, freshwater mussels and a flower, extinct….
When it rains on a farm here in central Illinois, the water that runs off into local streams and rivers carries with it excess nutrients leftover from fertilizer. Those nutrients eventually flow into the Mississippi River and, ultimately, into the Gulf of Mexico. And while you can’t see them with the naked eye, those nutrients…