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Weekend storms bring 100-year rainfall to central Illinois

Around 10 inches of rain hit fields in the top corn and soybean producing county in the US over the weekend.

Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford tells Brownfield in McLean and neighboring DeWitt and Piatt counties  that exceeded the 100-year rainfall totals for a three-day period, meaning there is only a 1% chance for this type of event in any given year.

“Some of those areas in southern McLean County got closer to the 500-year rainfall event for a three-day period, so very extreme.””

The Illinois State Water Survey’s estimated 100-year three-day total is 8.98 inches and the estimated 500-year three day total 10.81 inches.

He says the first couple of inches were welcome to drier soils, but totals exceeded 2-5 inches from the quad cities down to the St. Louis area- threatening crop development. Heavy winds and mild tornadoes laid corn over in some areas, but Ford says the largest impact to ag will be the flooding.

“We hit 87 degrees in Champaign yesterday which can cause considerable crop damage when submerged in that very hot water.”

Ford says more rain is in the forecast this week, but at a milder level.

“The forecast 7-day total ranges from half an inch to maybe two inches and the majority of that will fall in the next 3 to 4 days on some pretty wet soils.”

He says it should start to dry up beginning next weekend.