2,067 first-hand accounts of flood events in Illinois, ranked by impact. Each is a NOAA-written narrative of the moment.
A strong area of low pressure moving into the Midwest late on 10/29 and early on 10/30 tapped plenty of tropical moisture. It produced a prolonged period of heavy rainfall which resulted in widespread areal flooding in central Illinois between October 30th and November 3rd.
Read the full account →An upper-level disturbance pushed into west-central Illinois during the afternoon of August 20th, triggering widespread showers and thunderstorms. Due to a very moist airmass and relatively slow storm motion, locally heavy rainfall of between 1 and 3 inches occurred.
Read the full account →Strong to severe thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois during the afternoon and evening hours of July 23rd producing strong winds. Additional thunderstorms developed in the late evening of July 23rd and lasted in the early morning hours of July 24th producing very heavy…
Read the full account →A persistent frontal boundary interacting with a very moist airmass led to periods of showers and thunderstorms across central Illinois on June 19th and 20th.
Read the full account →The Wabash, Little Wabash, and Ohio Rivers rose back above flood stage late in the month. These river rises were in response to a series of nearly stationary fronts and outflow boundaries between the 16th and 24th.
Read the full account →Several rounds of heavy rainfall in west central Illinois resulted in major flooding on the Spoon River in eastern Knox County and Fulton County. One man died when he drove his vehicle around a barricade and drowned in the Spoon River.
Read the full account →A low pressure center tracked into central Illinois by early afternoon, producing a narrow band of intense rain in parts of west central Illinois and a small part of southeast Illinois. Isolated rainfall totals of 4.00 to 5.00 inches resulted in flash flooding.
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 →A nearly stationary frontal boundary interacting with an unseasonably warm and moist airmass brought widespread showers and thunderstorms to parts of central Illinois from the later afternoon of April 17th through the morning of April 18th.
Read the full account →A series of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall and widespread flooding to much of the Chicago metro area, namely the south and west suburbs and up into the city of Chicago. Several Oswego District 308 schools received water and storm damage.
Read the full account →Isolated thunderstorms produced funnel clouds across central Illinois during the late morning of July 25th. A narrow line of thunderstorms developed over southeast DuPage and central Cook Counties during the late morning of July 25th and continued into the early afternoon…
Read the full account →An extreme rainfall event occurred on July 2 in the Chicago metropolitan area caused by multiple nearly stationary bands of showers and thunderstorms near a slow-moving low pressure area.
Read the full account →A series of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall and widespread flooding to much of the Chicago metro area, namely the south and west suburbs and up into the city of Chicago. Several Oswego District 308 schools received water and storm damage.
Read the full account →A series of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall and widespread flooding to much of the Chicago metro area, namely the south and west suburbs and up into the city of Chicago. Several Oswego District 308 schools received water and storm damage.
Read the full account →Torrential rainfall amounts from 6 to 12 inches occurred over a two-day period, causing an historic flood event. A very slow-moving cold front over southwest Illinois and southeast Missouri provided the focus for prolonged heavy rainfall.
Read the full account →During the early morning of Tuesday, July 26th, 2022, a complex of training thunderstorms set up roughly along the I-70 corridor in Missouri and I-64 corridor in Illinois. Several rounds of thunderstorms with rainfall rates exceeding 2in/hr affected this area, including the St.
Read the full account →A series of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall and widespread flooding to much of the Chicago metro area, namely the south and west suburbs and up into the city of Chicago. Several Oswego District 308 schools received water and storm damage.
Read the full account →During the afternoon and evening of the 18th, a few rounds of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall to much of northern Illinois resulting in flash flooding. One particularly strong storm also produced damaging winds in DeKalb County.
Read the full account →During the evening of July 20th, an MCS rode into south-central Illinois. Though the system as a whole kept pushing southeast during the evening, back-building and additional development along its northwestern edge caused it to rain constantly over Fayette County for hours.
Read the full account →A series of disturbances tracking along a nearly stationary frontal boundary resulted in two periods of heavy rainfall across parts of central Illinois on June 25th and June 26th.
Read the full account →During the afternoon and evening of the 18th, a few rounds of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall to much of northern Illinois resulting in flash flooding. One particularly strong storm also produced damaging winds in DeKalb County.
Read the full account →A major outbreak of severe weather occurred on the 8th for the Quad State region. On the synoptic scale, a longwave trough was centered across the Rockies with deep-layer southwesterly flow from the Southern Plains to the Ohio Valley.
Read the full account →A series of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall and widespread flooding to much of the Chicago metro area, namely the south and west suburbs and up into the city of Chicago. Several Oswego District 308 schools received water and storm damage.
Read the full account →During the afternoon and evening of the 18th, a few rounds of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall to much of northern Illinois resulting in flash flooding. One particularly strong storm also produced damaging winds in DeKalb County.
Read the full account →