Flash Flood — Jasper, Illinois

2017-04-29 · 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.

Wider weather episode

Low pressure tracking along a stationary frontal boundary near the I-70 corridor brought widespread strong to severe thunderstorms to much of central and southeast Illinois during the late afternoon and evening of April 29th. A tornado briefly touched down in an open field northeast of Alexander in Morgan County. Elsewhere, thunderstorms packed winds of 60-70mph and caused significant wind damage. A downburst with estimated winds of 80mph caused property damage of around 2 million dollars in Middletown in Logan County. In addition to the strong winds, many of the storms dropped copious amounts of rain, causing widespread flash flooding. Numerous roads were closed due to high water, including Highway 29 north of the McClugage Bridge in Peoria where a mudslide occurred.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.1710, -88.3604)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 696915. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.