Heavy Rains on August 12-15

As forecasted by the National Weather Service, heavy rains have fallen across Illinois since Friday. Here are the totals by day and for the three days combined. More rain is expected today and tomorrow (last map). Friday’s rainfall is shown on the 24-hour totals for the morning of August 13, etc. We have had a stationary front parked over Illinois since Friday, which is usually a key ingredient for getting significant rainfall amount.
Here is the set of maps showing the rainfall totals for each day, using rain-gage calibrated rainfall totals. It provides a higher level of details with fairly good accuracy. The downside is that the color scale changes slightly from map to map.

Rainfall totals for the morning of August 13, 2016

aug13
Morning of August 13, 2016.

Rainfall totals for the morning of August 14, 2016

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Flooding – Deadly Risk in Illinois with 28 Deaths in 19 Years

Right now the attention is on the widespread flooding in Texas and Oklahoma, with the number of deaths sitting at 21 and climbing. Illinois has been faced with deadly flooding in the past. An examination of the national storm database reveals that Illinois has had 28 flood-related deaths in the last 19 years*.

Here are the numbers by year in Illinois. Some years like 2000, 2008, 2009, and 2013 were especially bad with 4 to 5 deaths each. A few years had no deaths, including 2004-07, 2012, and 2014. While not part of this database, six deaths were reported in Illinois during the 1993 flood, according the ISWS report.

Flood-related deaths in Illinois from 1996 to 2014, based on data from the National Climatic Data Center.
Flood-related deaths in Illinois from 1996 to 2014, based on data from the National Climatic Data Center.

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