Flood — Woodford, Illinois

2020-07-15 to 2020-07-16 · near Roanoke, Woodford, Illinois

Event narrative

Heavy rainfall of 5 to 7 inches brought widespread flash flooding to much of Woodford County, including the city of Roanoke, during the afternoon of July 15th. Once the rain ended, the water continued to rise and cause significant issues in Roanoke through the morning of July 16th. 71 homes and 15 businesses were flooded, including 10 homes and 5 businesses with major flooding. Several basement walls and foundations collapsed within the structures impacted by major flooding. 10 people were rescued by boat due to the high water. In addition, Route 116 was closed in and just east of Roanoke.

Wider weather episode

Low pressure tracked from near Kansas City on the morning of July 15th to southern Lake Michigan by midnight on July 16th. The low interacted with an unstable and very moist environment to produce a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) over eastern Kansas into Missouri, which then pushed into west-central Illinois by the mid to late morning of July 15th. Several rounds of convection moved across the Illinois River Valley through the afternoon, producing heavy rain and isolated wind damage. The heaviest rainfall of 5 to 7 inches was focused across Tazewell, Woodford, and far eastern Peoria counties where significant flash flooding occurred. In addition, 5 weak tornadoes touched down...including 2 in Tazewell County, 1 in McLean County, 1 in Morgan County, and 1 in Montgomery County which then crossed into southern Sangamon County. Minor damage was reported with some of the tornadoes: however, no injuries or deaths occurred.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.8192, -89.2030)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 914247. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.