National Weather Service says normal to above temps this winter

[November 30, 2009]  The National Weather Service in Lincoln has good news for Logan County and surrounding areas for the winter outlook.

Illinois weather outlook for December 2009:

• Average temperatures: Below-normal temperatures are expected the first half of the month, trending toward above-normal readings by the end of December.

• Average precipitation: Normal conditions throughout the month.
  

Illinois weather outlook for winter (December-February):

• Average temperatures for three months: Normal to slightly above normal.

• Average precipitation for three months: Normal to slightly below normal precipitation.
  

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National Weather Service notes:

New format for winter weather and non-precipitation notices -- Beginning Dec. 8 and ending May 29, 2010, National Weather Service offices serving the state of Illinois will begin modifying the formats of notices on winter weather and non-precipitation. There will be experimental, bulleted notices for watches, warnings and advisories, with a format similar to severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings. This change includes the products in the table below:

These formats are easier for users to read and quickly gather vital information during hazardous winter weather and non-precipitation events. A product description document for these experimental notices and examples of the bullet-formatted winter weather and non-precipitation reports are available at http://products.weather.gov/viewliste.php.

11th annual Skywarn Recognition Day -- This annual event is held by each Illinois NWS office to recognize the contributions made throughout the year by volunteer ham radio operators and storm spotters. This year, the event will be from 6 p.m. Friday until 6 p.m. Saturday. Ham radio volunteers will attempt to make as many contacts as possible across the United States on various radio frequencies. For more information, visit http://hamradio.noaa.gov/.

Multimedia weather briefings -- As a reminder, Illinois NWS offices have started using multimedia tools to brief emergency managers and the public about high-impact hazardous weather events. This tool will not replace the conference calls with EMAs and the media for hazardous events but will supplement them.

These briefings will be located on NWS Web pages. Go to www.weather.gov
and then click on the portion of Illinois you are interested in to jump to the NWS office that covers your area.

[Text from file received from National Weather Service, Lincoln office]

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Watches	Warnings	Advisories
Winter storm watch	Winter storm warning	Winter weather advisory
Blizzard watch	Blizzard warning	Freezing rain advisory
Wind chill watch	Ice storm warning	Wind chill advisory
High wind watch	Wind chill warning	Wind advisory
	High wind warning	Freezing fog advisory
		Dense fog advisory