Flash Flood — Crawford, Illinois

2017-05-11 · near Pierceburg, Crawford, Illinois

Event narrative

The third heavy rain event to occur in less than two weeks resulted in rapid flash flooding in southern Crawford County. Rainfall amounts ranged from 1.50 to 2.00 inches during the late evening of May 10th into the early morning of May 11th in areas where ditches were already full of water and soils were saturated. Numerous rural roads were closed, particularly from Green Brier to Landes, where the heaviest rainfall occurred.

Wider weather episode

A cluster of strong to severe thunderstorms developed in advance of an area of low pressure across southeast Iowa during the afternoon of May 10th. The storms then developed into a squall line and raced east-southeast along a warm front draped across central Illinois during the late afternoon and early evening. One tornado touched down along the line just south of Argenta in Macon County, while widespread wind damage was reported primarily along and south of I-72. Heavy rainfall of 1.5 to 2.5 inches aggravated ongoing flooding across southeast Illinois, where numerous roads were closed due to high water south of I-70.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.9481, -87.9469)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 704704. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.