Flash Flood — Knox, Illinois

2013-04-18 · near Yates City, Knox, Illinois

Event narrative

Torrential rainfall of 4.00 to 8.00 inches resulted in damage to thousands of houses and businesses in the county, including several in the cities of Galesburg and Knoxville. Every creek and stream in the county was flooded. Nearly every road in the county was impassable, and several water rescues were made. This rainfall lead to record or near record flooding on the Spoon River from April 18th through the 24th.

Wider weather episode

A nearly stationary frontal boundary interacting with an unseasonably warm and moist airmass brought widespread showers and thunderstorms to parts of central Illinois from the later afternoon of April 17th through the morning of April 18th. Several rounds of thunderstorms impacted west-central and central Illinois producing torrential rainfall and major flash flooding along and west of a Rushville to Minonk line. Rainfall totals ranged from 5 to 8 inches across most of this area. In addition, periodic severe thunderstorms produced large hail and damaging winds.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.7115, -89.9847)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 448922. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.