Friday, November 9, 2007

Whooping Cranes & Sunshine Light Up the Lafayette Skies!


Courtesy of Bill Crook

What a beautiful picture out of Benton County this morning! The Whooping Crane Mitigation Project took center stage in the blue skies. Seventeen endangered whooping crane chicks and their surrogate parents are just beginning a 1,250 mile migration from Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin to Chassahowitzka NWR along Florida's Gulf Coast. They are being helped by four ultralight aircraft. Whooping cranes are North America's tallest birds measuring about 5 feet tall and they have almost 8 foot wing spans. They are an endangered species and the good news is that they are starting to bounce back thanks to projects like these. In the 1940s there were only 21 left in the wild. Today there are about 350. Tonight they will nest in Boone County before continuing their southward migration. The great news is their weather looks fantastic for the next several days. I do not see real stormy weather between here in Florida until at least next week.

Yesterday, we talked a lot about snow and winter weather, but today I have something for the warmer weather fans and that is a very nice weekend for this time of year. We should have a nice sunny start on Saturday with just a few rain showers for Veterans Day. The good news is we will not have a 65 degree temperature drop like we saw 96 years ago this weekend. That is right, chickens did not exactly freeze in their tracks but we fell from 74 degrees to 9 degrees in less than 24 hours. I will talk more about that tonight on the news!

Winter Outlook Tidbit:

This winter may be a lot like 1964-65, 1975-76, and 1995-96.
These years were particularly volatile, including a January tornado and snow all in the same day in Montgomery County. Make sure to stay tuned for more and your winter weather outlook here on the blog and tune in Tuesday night at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. for your complete winter outlook.


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