April 8th, 2015

Tonight's intriguing radar

Evening fellow Illinoisans!

Tonight, some strange and exciting things are happening in the Prairie State. Like last night, the state is clearly divided across the center by a stationary front. Also like last night, winds are still forecast to become westerly-based throughout the state tomorrow. In addition, large storm systems are blotting out much of Central and Southern Illinois, meaning limited migration there. So at this moment, given our understanding that birds avoid migrating in northerly winds, it would be reasonable to say that there will be little migration anywhere in Illinois. But, as it often does, nature is breaking the "rules". Birds are migrating in light concentrations around the large storm system, especially in Northern Illinois. Given the southerly winds (and potential for storms to dissipate) in

Tonight's winds

Southern and part of Central Illinois, we'll probably see some arrivals and influxes throughout the state tomorrow morning. Weird stuff, but then again, why else would we have an entire avocation dedicated to studying nature?

Seeing as migration isn't following a consistent pattern tonight, I won't bother dividing up the state. Alas, we must still look ahead at the wind forecast. Due to the passage of a low pressure center through Wisconsin tomorrow, winds are forecast to be westerly throughout the state by midnight tomorrow. Given tonight, I'm uncertain what to predict for tomorrow, so we may just have to wait and see! After that, winds are forecast to be northerly until Saturday night, when migration may again pick up.

Wind forecast for tomorrow
night. Click to enlarge.

Interesting stuff, eh? Don't forget to check on which species may be out there tomorrow on this eBird data page.

That's all I've got for tonight! Until tomorrow night, I bid you all ado.