I was cruising along at 7500 MSL, the OAT was 60-degrees F.

This was an inversion, but the computer access did not tell me that. Not
even the two FSS briefers I spoke with during the two-and-a-half hour
flight told me about it. One of the briefers I spoke with was a trainee.
I knew it from a flight a year ago when I requested enroute weather from
another FSS briefer over Tennessee. Similiar conditions prevailed on
that day and the briefed provided an very thorough briefing of the
conditions and what to expect.

The problem is that the recruits have no local knowledge.
Specifically, that an inversion is common in the vicinity of Chicago,
and that Lake Michigan often generates a mini-high pressure zone of
its own in summer because the water is so cold.

We do need some form of FSS that can be contacted by pilots in remote
areas or without onboard weather, but the current FSS is not what we
need.

Even when the FSS was fully functional, I was on a flight through
western Kansas a couple of years ago in deteriorating conditions,
called FSS, and was told I was No 4 in line for service. It probably
took close to 20 minutes to actually talk to someone. That's when I
decided that onboard weather was cheap insurance.