As of noon on Monday, August 27, the track of Hurricane Isaac could pass through Illinois on Saturday (first map). Of course, it won’t be a hurricane – just a tropical depression. Even so, large rainfall amounts are expected to fall in parts of Illinois and Missouri (second map).
Back in 2008, I wrote about the impact of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav as the remains of those two systems dumped an impressive amount of rainfall across Illinois.
Perhaps a better comparison is with the drought of 2005. Like this year, Illinois was faced with a severe drought. However, the remains of four tropical systems brought needed rainfall into the region, especially southern Illinois (third map). The four tropical systems were Tropical Storm Arlene in June, Hurricane Dennis in July, Hurricane Katrina in August, and Hurricane Rita in September. In fact, the total rainfall from these four systems ranged from almost 8 inches in southern Illinois to about an inch in northern Illinois (fourth map). You can read more about the impact of tropical storms in 2005 in this article and this report (starting page 47).
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