2,067 first-hand accounts of flood events in Illinois, ranked by impact. Each is a NOAA-written narrative of the moment.
Flooding along parts of the Mississippi River surpassed the Great Flood of 1993. Along most other rivers, the flooding was relatively minor. The Governor of Illinois declared some counties disaster areas, including the Mississippi River counties of Alexander and Jackson.
Read the full account →Heavy rains toward the end of December sent several rivers, including the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, above flood stage from December into the first part of January.
Read the full account →The remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy moved northward from the central Gulf coast, while a cold front approached the Ohio Valley from the northwest. The tropical moisture from Cindy was squeezed out by the approaching cold front.
Read the full account →Thunderstorms intensified within a zone of strong southerly low level winds that provided abundant warmth and moisture. These strong low level winds enhanced wind shear, which promoted the development of supercells with isolated tornadoes.
Read the full account →Heavy rainfall in March set the stage for major flooding when record-setting rains fell in April and May. At Paducah, 15.91 inches of rain fell in April, which was 10.96 inches above normal.
Read the full account →Significant flooding developed after two thunderstorm complexes crossed southern Illinois, bringing 72-hour rainfall totals to nearly one foot in isolated locations. A large complex of thunderstorms moved southeast across southern Illinois during the evening hours of the 29th.
Read the full account →The large mainstem rivers remained well above flood stage following several rounds of heavy rain in late February. February monthly precipitation was 4 to 7 inches above normal, with monthly totals of 8 to 10 inches common.
Read the full account →The large mainstem rivers remained well above flood stage following several rounds of heavy rain in late February. February monthly precipitation was 4 to 7 inches above normal, with monthly totals of 8 to 10 inches common.
Read the full account →The large mainstem rivers remained well above flood stage following several rounds of heavy rain in late February. February monthly precipitation was 4 to 7 inches above normal, with monthly totals of 8 to 10 inches common.
Read the full account →March brought a return to warmer weather with an active spring-like pattern. There were a couple rounds of heavier rain, somewhere within the Mississippi basin, regionally that contributed to additional river flooding.
Read the full account →Severe thunderstorms produced heavy rain, flash flooding, wind damage and a few tornadoes during the evening hours of June 28th. A wake low after earlier thunderstorms caused high winds across part of central Illinois including a measured gust to 61 mph at Pontiac Airport…
Read the full account →A cold front interacting with a warm and very humid airmass triggered several lines of strong to severe thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening of June 7th.
Read the full account →The center of the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry continued to move north-northeast, passing across the Ozarks of central and southwest Missouri. On the east side of Barry, a rather strong low level flow brought tropical moisture northward into the lower Ohio Valley.
Read the full account →Scattered thunderstorms tracked eastward from Missouri across southern Illinois. A deep upper-level low pressure system sank southeast into the far southwestern U.S., pumping plenty of Pacific moisture northeast into the mid Mississippi River Valley as a cold front settled…
Read the full account →Heavy rainfall in March set the stage for major flooding when record-setting rains fell in April and May. At Paducah, 15.91 inches of rain fell in April, which was 10.96 inches above normal.
Read the full account →The large mainstem rivers remained well above flood stage following several rounds of heavy rain in late February. February monthly precipitation was 4 to 7 inches above normal, with monthly totals of 8 to 10 inches common.
Read the full account →Extremely heavy rainfall amounts of about 8 inches in less than 24 hours caused severe flash flooding. Franklin County was declared a federal disaster area. Close to 100 people were evacuated from their homes by boat.
Read the full account →Slow moving thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall across the area during the late evening hours on June 1st and early morning hours of June 2nd. Rainfall amounts of 4 to 6 inches were common within a three hour period in eastern Shelby County and central Coles County.
Read the full account →The remnants of hurricane Ike moved across northern Illinois during the morning hours of September 14th. This system produced a second round of very heavy rain after a period of heavy rain just 24 hours earlier across many of the same areas.
Read the full account →The remnants of hurricane Ike moved across northern Illinois during the morning hours of September 14th. This system produced a second round of very heavy rain after a period of heavy rain just 24 hours earlier across many of the same areas.
Read the full account →Flooding along parts of the Mississippi River surpassed the Great Flood of 1993. Along most other rivers, the flooding was relatively minor. The Governor of Illinois declared some counties disaster areas, including the Mississippi River counties of Alexander and Jackson.
Read the full account →A nearly stationary front from the central Plains to southern Lake Michigan provided the focus for periods of thunderstorms in west central Illinois during the early morning hours of July 19th.
Read the full account →During the evening, clusters of storms developed just north of a surface warm front that extended from the Missouri bootheel northeastward along the Ohio River.
Read the full account →Thunderstorms developed during the late morning and early afternoon across a zone just south of I-80 in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana and persisted for several hours. An extremely moist environment set the stage for very heavy rainfall rates.
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