Flash Flood — St. Clair, Illinois

2022-07-26 · near East Carondelet, St. Clair, Illinois

Event narrative

Up to 9 inches of rain fell in a 6 to 10 hour period causing widespread flash flooding. The heaviest rain axis extended from East St. Louis southeastward towards Mascoutah. Numerous roads were flooded, including northbound I-55 at I-64, ramps from I-64 to I-255, U.S. Highway 50 between O'Fallon and Lebanon, and Illinois Route 15 near intersection with Frank Scott Parkway. Several water rescues were performed including on Illinois Route 15 at Karch Road, east of Freeburg and on West F Street near North 3rd Street in Belleville. An estimated 600 St. Clair County households were damaged by flash flooding. The St. Clair County Animal Shelter was flooded in Belleville so several dozen dogs and some cats had to be evacuated and placed in other shelters or homes temporarily. Overall, no injuries were reported in St. Clair County.

Wider weather episode

During the early morning of Tuesday, July 26th, 2022, a complex of training thunderstorms set up roughly along the I-70 corridor in Missouri and I-64 corridor in Illinois. Several rounds of thunderstorms with rainfall rates exceeding 2in/hr affected this area, including the St. Louis metropolitan area, through the early hours of July 26th and into the morning commute. Upwards of 11 of rain fell over the course of roughly 8 hours in an axis from Hawk Point, MO to St. Peters, MO according to radar-estimated rainfall products and several CoCoRaHS/spotter reports. A longer axis of over 8 of rain fell from northern Montgomery County in Missouri to St. Clair County in Illinois, causing multiple swift water rescues and scores of flooded interstates and homes across the St. Louis metropolitan area. St. Louis-Lambert International Airport also observed a new all-time record for daily precipitation: 8.64 of rain fell since midnight Central Standard Time (Daylight Savings Time is not used for climatological record-keeping). This value broke the previous record of 6.85, which occurred on August 20th, 1915 due to the remnants of the Galveston 1915 Hurricane. The storm-total rainfall was 9.07, but spans two days. Two fatalities were reported: one in St. Louis City, where a man drowned in his car near Skinker Blvd, and another in Hazelwood where a man drowned attempting to flee his flooded truck.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.5380, -90.2567)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1050028. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.