Flood — Jasper, Illinois

2017-04-29 to 2017-04-30 · near Island Grove, Jasper, Illinois

Event narrative

Rain amounts of 3.00 to 5.00 inches in about a two hour period during the evening hours, on already saturated ground, resulted in flash flooding across much of Jasper County. Several streets in the city of Newton were impassable. Numerous rural roads, highways and creeks in the county were flooded, particularly from Newton to Hunt City to Yale. Illinois Route 49 was closed between Willow Hill and Hunt City due to flowing water. An additional 0.50 to 1.00 inch of rain occurred on April 30th into May 2nd, keeping many roads flooded. As a result, areal flooding continued until the early morning hours of May 4th, before another round of heavy rain produced additional flash flooding.

Wider weather episode

Heavy rainfall impacted central and southeast Illinois from April 29th into April 30th...creating flash flooding, which led to widespread areal flooding. Periods of thunderstorms with very high rainfall rates dropped 2.00 to 6.50 inches of rain across much of central and southeast Illinois from April 29th into early on May 1st. This rainfall, occurring on top of already saturated soils, created flash flooding in a number of locations. Numerous roads were closed due to high water...including portions of Highway 29 in Peoria where a mudslide occurred. Low pressure lifted into the Great Lakes on May 1st, pulling the persistent frontal boundary out of the area and bringing a temporary end to the rain. Even though the rain had stopped, high water continued to impact many rural roads across central Illinois, particularly those near creeks and streams. Persistent flooding issues occurred across Christian, Shelby, and Douglas counties...as well as along the Embarras River Basin in Cumberland and Jasper counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.1691, -88.3669)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 696914. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.