Echos of Gustav

I checked the weather radar at 4:30 a.m. Rain was on its way, but it looked like we had a window for the day's sampling of Thompson and Chautauqua Lakes. For most of the summer, I was able to meet one of the students doing field work at the Emiquon Field Station (EFS). We are still using UIS as our home base for equipment and water sample processing until more resources show up at EFS. On this day, I met Doyn Kellerhals at UIS, loaded equipment, ice for samples and gas for the boats and we took off. Doyn is a biology M.S. student that has worked for several years in my lab. While I try to find a new field person, Doyn volunteered to step in.

We hit a heavy rain about 1 hour into our drive - around Kilbourne, IL. However, when we hit Havana, IL, we found not rain had fallen. This would change. We swiftly loaded the boat and got on Thompson Lake. The wind was picking up and the main storm front was moving to our south directed by a north wind. I did not see any new bird arrivals but did note the swallows were not out in numbers, preferring calmer days for feeding. As I sampled, it was apparent that this was the first day the air was cooler than the water. As we watched the skies for lightning, we saw many changes in the clouds - changing from almost "open" areas to heavy blue-black, and occasionally waves. The wind would bring heavy rain, drenching us, then would change and circle as we completed our work on Thompson and finished on Chautauqua as the eddy's of Hurricane Gustav rolled over the Illinois River floodplain.