An isolated slow-moving thunderstorm dropped over 2 inches of rain in just 30 minutes in the town of Farmer City in DeWitt County. As a result of the heavy rain, a street in town became flooded and impassible.
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The episode as NWS ILX wrote it up.
An isolated slow-moving thunderstorm dropped over 2 inches of rain in just 30 minutes in the town of Farmer City in DeWitt County. As a result of the heavy rain, a street in town became flooded and impassible.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Lincoln, IL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 28, 5:55 AM CST, 2 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Lincoln IL 655 AM CDT THU JUL 28 2016 .SHORT TERM...(Today and tonight) ISSUED AT 344 AM CDT Thu Jul 28 2016 Our forecast area remains between a couple of frontal boundaries. A stationary front is lingering across southern IL, with a cold front approaching from eastern Iowa and SW Wisconsin. The convective initiation prior to the cold front arriving will be random and more difficult to pin-point. Steering flow and the mid-levels is weak, so storm motions have been slow and locally heavy rain has occurred with any storms that have developed. High resolution models are pointing toward an increase in storm coverage this afternoon mainly tied to the arrival of the cold front from the northwest. Prior to that, storms chances appear higher in our SE counties, due to proximity to shortwaves moving along the stationary front across southern IL. Active showers/storms near our western counties appear poised to drift into our area early this morning. Therefore, have trended an increase in PoPs today starting in the western and southern portions of the CWA, then advanced the increasing PoPs east- northeast this afternoon. The timing of the cold frontal passage is difficult to discern in the models, but based on surface wind projections, it looks to reach I-55 by Noon, and push southeast of our counties by 6 pm. Will start to decrease PoPs this evening from west to east, with only slight chance PoPs in all counties after midnight. Satellite images show we should see a period of sunshine this morning before convection becomes more widespread and clouds thicken and increase. We should see enough sun to support high temps approaching the mid 80s in all areas. Lows tonight should remain on the mild side, dropping close to minimum dewpoints in the mid to upper 60s. Light fog will once again be expected late tonight. .LONG TERM...(Friday through Wednesday) ISSUED AT 344 AM CDT Thu Jul 28 2016 Weak open wave aloft will keep shower and thunderstorm threat in the region through Friday/into early Saturday morning, providing some minimal lift to an already unstable airmass. Once the system moves to the east a bit, showers will become more widely spread, but likely linger through Saturday. Less so on Sunday, and more confined to the southern tier of Illinois. High pressure ridge builds into the eastern half of the CONUS, although its influence looks somewhat weak this far west of the ridge axis. Monday maintaining some consistency with small disturbance moving into the region with another round of precip, particularly to the south. Though forecast for Tuesday had a drying trend previously, still have to concede the potential mesoscale influences over a warm and moist airmass will keep the shower and thunderstorm threat in place over a large part of the Midwest through the forecast period. Temps trending slightly cooler through the first half of the weekend with the more northwesterly flow and the precip influence. 850mb temps not moderating quite as much, and holes/breaks in the cloud cover for the next couple days could result in some isolated warmer temps. After the first half of the weekend, the building heat in the western half of the CONUS begins to shift, putting another warming trend in place for Central Illinois for next week. && .AVIATION...(For the 12Z TAFS through 12Z Friday morning) Issued at 642 AM CDT Thu Jul 28 2016 Locally dense fog and VV001 have developed around the SPI terminal site. The VLIFR conditions should improve to MVFR and then VFR by mid-morning. Isolated showers/storms have developed between BMI and CMI already this morning, with a storm track to the east. Have used VCTS to cover those early TAF period storm chances. The unstable and muggy airmass in place across central Illinois is ripe for more storms as a cold front and upper level wave arrive later this morning toward PIA. The cold front/upper wave and storm chances will progress eastward this afternoon. All terminal sites are expected to be affected by storms at some point during the day today. Will continue with VCTS from late morning to mid afternoon in all TAFs for the storm potential. Outside of thunderstorms, VFR conditions should prevail across the area. Patchy MVFR fog may develop later tonight, as very little airmass change is expected behind the cold front. Winds should remain light, with directions eventually becoming northwest this evening behind the cold front. && .ILX Watches/Warnings/Advisories... NONE. && SHORT TERM...Shimon LONG TERM...HJS AVIATION...Shimon
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 556 AM CDT THU JUL 28 2016 ILZ027>031-036>038-040>057-061>063-066>068-071>073-291100- CASS-CHAMPAIGN-CHRISTIAN-CLARK-CLAY-COLES-CRAWFORD-CUMBERLAND- DE WITT-DOUGLAS-EDGAR-EFFINGHAM-FULTON-JASPER-KNOX-LAWRENCE-LOGAN- MACON-MARSHALL-MASON-MCLEAN-MENARD-MORGAN-MOULTRIE-PEORIA-PIATT- RICHLAND-SANGAMON-SCHUYLER-SCOTT-SHELBY-STARK-TAZEWELL-VERMILION- WOODFORD- 556 AM CDT THU JUL 28 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS...EAST CENTRAL ILLINOIS...NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS...SOUTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS...SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS AND WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THUNDERSTORMS WILL INCREASE THIS AFTERNOON AS A COLD FRONT ARRIVES FROM THE NORTHWEST. SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED, BUT ANY STORM MAY PRODUCE VERY HEAVY RAINFALL AND LOCALIZED FLOODING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WILL LINGER ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK. WHILE WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED...A FEW OF THE STORMS COULD PRODUCE GUSTY WINDS AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL FROM TIME TO TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED THROUGH TONIGHT. SHIMON
The Lincoln radar (KILX), 61 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 11:59 UTC.
1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
A street in the town of Farmer City became flooded and impassible after a slow-moving thunderstorm dropped over 2 inches of rain in just 30 minutes.
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