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Tuesday, September 16, 2014
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September: A record-breaker Meteorologists have mixed reports on upcoming winter By D onna B arker dbarker@bcrnews.com
After hitting the Bureau County area with unseasonably cool weather so far this fall, Mother Nature appears to be undecided when it comes to the coming winter’s weather. The Quad Cities area, which includes Bureau County, has experienced a record-breaking September with a high temperature of only 52 degrees on Friday, which broke the 112-year-old record of 55 degrees set in 1902. Thursday temperatures for the Quad Cities area reached only to 56 degrees, break-
ing the old record of 59 degrees set in 1878. But this latest shivery weather doesn’t necessarily mean another ridiculously cold winter lies ahead, said WQAD meteorologist James Zahara. To reach that conclusion, he has to monitor the Pacific Ocean thousands of miles away and the lookout for El Nino, which is a phenomena which not only affects the Quad Cities area weather in the country but the entire world, Zahara said. Most climatologists are predicting a 60 to 65 percent chance of an El Nino forming during the fall and winter. An El Nino usually means a milder winter in the Midwest, Zahara said.
“But keep in mind, there are a lot more variables that we’ll be analyzing the next few months that will go into the winter forecast equation,” Zahara said. “This is something we’ll definitely keep an eye on. Time will tell.” However, “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” is already predicting another “teeth-chatteringly cold winter” across the United States. “Colder is just almost too familiar a term,” Editor Janice Stillman said. “Think of it as a refrigernation.” Claiming a traditionally 80 percent–accurate weather forecasts, “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” predicts
See Record-breaker Page 4
Two fires in four days County firefighters kept busy By BCR
staff
news@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON/WYANET — Bureau County firefighters responded to two house fires in the past four days. The Princeton Fire Department was called to a house fire at 1:39 p.m. Friday at 21 N. Gosse St., the residence of Kristie Thomas. Princeton Fire Chief Chuck Woolley said Thomas had just arrived home for lunch and found her home full of smoke and called the fire department. Upon arrival, firefighters reported there was nothing showing from the outside of the home, but when they entered the home, they were met with smoke on the first floor. “The firefighters did a quick search of the first and second floors and found no fire. They continued to the basement where they found a small fire in a room to the northwest corner of the basement,” Woolley said. Firefighters extinguished the fire and removed smoke from the home. There was content damage in the room where the fire was located and smoke damage throughout the rest of the house, Woolley said. The Princeton Fire Department responded to the scene with two engines,
See Fires Page 4 Year 168 No. 111 One Section - 20 Pages
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BCR photo/Mike Vaughn
Princeton’s Main Street was jam-packed Saturday afternoon, as people lined the street to watch the annual Homestead Festival parade. Organizers estimate up to 15,000 attended the favorite event, which saw nearly 125 entries from throughout the county and beyond. Despite rainy weather Friday evening, Homestead Committee members deemed the weekend event a success. See more Homestead photos on Pages 9-10.
Homestead Festival deemed a success Near-perfect weather only helped the weekend events By G oldie C urrie gcurrie@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — The 43rd annual Homestead Festival has come to an end, but the memories made throughout the weekend will last a lifetime. Deb and Mike Vrana, the lead couple of the Homestead Steering Committee, took a moment to reflect back on the highlights of this year’s festival. Overall, they said it was a successful weekend. The near-
perfect weather conditions on Saturday and Sunday allowed for great turnouts for the big events like the parade, car show on Main Street and Barbecue cook-off. The rain and chilly air on Friday did put a damper on the evening activities but certainly didn’t slow the fun. The announcements for the winners of the baby contest, window display contest and introduction of grand marshal Julie MuCutchan took place, yet due to the small crowd, the announcements were made again on Saturday around parade time. Friday night, the Apollo Theater showed Richard Widmark’s movie, “The Trap.” Deb reported there was an outstanding turnout to the movie and about 125 tickets were sold.
See Homestead Page 4