Highlights
Storms rolled through the Chicago area overnight and knocked out power to more than 80,000 people.
Wednesday night’s storms brought a record amount of rainfall for the month of July. In July alone, there are reports that have had almost ten inches of rain.
Overnight storms pushed this month’s rain totals to 9.75 inches at O’Hare International Airport as of about 2 a.m., with more rain expected later this morning, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Krein. That total tops the previous July record of 9.56 inches, set in 1889.
The record was set in a matter of days, with only trace amounts of rain on July 5 and July 6 before the first appreciable totals on July 22, Krein said. The biggest single-day rain total was 6.86 inches on July 23.
The downpours make July 2011 the ninth wettest month on-record, although a long way off of the all-time record for a single month — 17.1 inches, set in August of 1987.
A flash flood watch for Northern Illinois in effect until 1 p.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Wednesday night’s and Thursday morning’s storms could also produce isolated tornadoes and frequent lightning. The heavy rainfall rate is caused by a very moist air mass.
Thunderstorms are expected to last until Thursday morning with heavy downpours likely and rainfall rates that could hit 1 to 3 inches per hour, the weather service said.
The area has already experienced very heavy rainfall in recent days and additional heavy rain could lead to rapid flooding, the weather service warns. Areas along and north of I-88 and I-290 appear to have the greatest threat for the heaviest rainfall through Thursday morning.
Areas to the south of the highways down to I-80 could also see some heavy rainfall and flash flooding.
The source article Storms pummel the Chicago area, set record for wettest July was published July 28, 2011 by abc7chicago.com .
