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Dangerous Heat Continues in the Central and Southern U.S.; Severe Weather and Heavy Rain in the Northern Plains

Dangerous, prolonged heat is expected across portions of the Central and Southeast U.S. through July. Scattered severe thunderstorms are expected over parts of the northern Plains into the upper Mississippi Valley today, with damaging winds and large hail as the primary threats. Heavy rainfall could lead to areas of flooding across the northern Plains, Upper Midwest, Southeast and Southwest. Read More >

Overview

On Saturday, an expansive and strong weather system impacted the area. This system had tropical moisture within it from the remnants of Tropical Storm Olga that had made landfall on Louisiana.  This system produced a 9-12 hour period of rain across much of northern Illinois and a 6-9 hour period for northwest Indiana. Rainfall rates were heavy especially late Saturday afternoon into the evening. This resulted in flooding developing over a few to several hour period, even borderline flash flooding in places.

Widespread rainfall of 1.50" to 3.50" were observed. Chicago O'Hare received 2.22", and of that 2.18" fell on October 26th. That was a record for that date. It also was the 10th calendar day in 2019 with over one inch of precipitation, and the 6th such day in just the past two months (since Oct 27) with 1+" of rain.

This system also brought gusty winds, with gusts to near 45 mph along the lakefront. This resulted in high waves peaking over 10 ft at the Wilmette, IL and Michigan City, IN buoys.

Radar
Radar snapshot from 6 pm on Oct 26. (loop)
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Additional recaps can be found on the NWS Chicago Past Events Page
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