Fog prompts swim ban at beaches
By MITCH DUDEK AND MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Staff Reporters July 19, 2011 12:43PM
Bathers head back to North Avenue beach after the beach closing was lifted. The fog prevented lifeguards from seeing swimmers in the lake. | Al Podgorski~Chicago Sun-Times
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Updated: July 26, 2011 9:39AM
A blanket of lakefront fog forced a swimming ban Monday at all but one of Chicago’s beaches as the city sweltered in its third day of 90-degree plus temperatures.
And today is expected to be the hottest day since 2006.
With visibility cut to nearly zero at times, life guards ordered people out of the water and off the sand shortly after noon at Oak Street and North Avenue Beaches. Similar warnings hit the other beaches, with only 12th Street Beach spared.
“We were pretty mad,” said Kathryn Geist, who drove two hours from Aurora with a pal and spent $25 on parking to spend the day at Oak Street Beach. “We had just sat down and put our towels out,” said Geist, 19. “You could hear a low hum of groaning when the ban was announced,” she said.
Beaches were reopened, but the water remained off limits.
But the unpopular move was appreciated by some.
“They did absolutely the right thing getting kids out of the water when they couldn’t see them. The fog was pretty bad,” said Joyce Gladwin, 67, of Elmwood Park, who brought her three grandchildren to North Avenue Beach.
Park District life guards at each beach were given discretion on when to reopen.
The wall of spooky and temperature-easing vapors (77 degrees by the water) cleared up a few blocks west of Lake Michigan — with the mercury rising to 87 in the Loop and 93 at O’Hare Airport with a top heat index of 101.
Those temperatures, however, seem merciful compared to today’s forecast: highs in the upper 90s and heat index values of over 110.
“And there won’t be any lake cooling downtown, so the entire metro area is gonna bake,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Richard Castro. “An extensive heat warning is in effect from 7 a.m. Wednesday through 4 a.m. Friday ... and there won’t be any real relief from the heat and humidity overnight, with temperatures lingering in the 80s.”
Melting Chicagoans can perhaps glean vicarious relief from the large creatures at Brookfield Zoo that will be given 400 pound blocks of ice — some with raw meat or strawberries frozen in the center — to play with this morning.
The polar bears, grizzlies and Siberian tiger should be especially happy, said zoo official Bill Zeigler. “It becomes a cool, fun thing for them.”
Contributing: Darryl Holliday
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