Heavy Rain in Illinois

Events

613

Deaths

5

Injuries

1

Damage

$1.3 million

• Tornado and Flash Flooding in Illinois, August 23 to 27, 20072 deaths · 49 injured · $15 million · EF1 · 136 eventsPowerful and damaging thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois producing widespread wind damage.
• Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Illinois, July 27 to 28, 20115 deaths · $7.8 million · EF0 · 32 eventsHot and humid conditions prevailed across the region July 27, as a warm front lifted northward into northeast Iowa. Showers and thunderstorms developed along the Highway 20 corridor in Dubuque, Jo Daviess and Stephenson Counties during the early evening hours of July 27.
• Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Illinois, May 8, 20091 death · 29 injured · $286 million · EF1 · 21 eventsA mature, very intense derecho moved rapidly east along a stationary front across the Mid Mississippi Valley into the Lower Ohio Valley.
• Heavy Rain in Illinois, July 7, 20214 deaths · 1 injured · 1 eventA slow-moving cold front draped across north-central Illinois triggered scattered thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening of July 7th. While severe weather and flash flooding were not observed, locally heavy rainfall within the storms created hazardous driving conditions.
• Tornadoes and Flash Flood in Illinois, June 11, 202613 injured · EF3 · 111 eventsSevere thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois during the afternoon and evening of June 11th producing wind damage, localized flooding and several tornadoes.
• Flash Flooding and Flooding in Illinois, July 23 to 24, 20101 death · $261 million · 61 kt wind · 35 eventsStrong to severe thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois during the afternoon and evening hours of July 23rd producing strong winds.
• Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Illinois, July 14 to 15, 20241 death · 1 injured · $500,000 · EF1 · 79 eventsThunderstorms developed during the evening of July 14th and continued into the early morning of July 15th, as they moved across all of northern and central Illinois. Nine tornadoes occurred, along with widespread wind damage.
• Tornadoes and Hail in Illinois, April 19, 20114 injured · $14 million · EF2 · 55 eventsThunderstorms organized into a bow echo that produced widespread very damaging winds and isolated tornadoes. A shortwave trough over the central and southern high Plains moved northeast through the Mid-Mississippi Valley into the upper Great Lakes.
• Tornadoes and Flooding in Illinois, June 20 to 21, 202111 injured · EF3 · 25 eventsA line of severe thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois during the late evening of June 20th and the early morning of June 21st producing wind damage and three tornadoes.
• Tornadoes and Hail in Illinois, May 25, 2011$5.7 million · EF2 · 48 eventsNumerous strong to severe thunderstorms occurred in the warm sector of a low pressure system over central Missouri. The air mass in the warm sector was very unstable, with afternoon mixed-layer cape values in the 2500 to 4000 j/kg range.
• Flash Flooding and Damaging Winds in Illinois, August 17, 2025$289 million · 56 kt wind · 37 eventsA series of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall and widespread flooding to much of the Chicago metro area, namely the south and west suburbs and up into the city of Chicago. Several Oswego District 308 schools received water and storm damage.
• Flash Flooding and Heavy Rain in Illinois, July 2, 2023$500 million · 22 eventsAn extreme rainfall event occurred on July 2 in the Chicago metropolitan area caused by multiple nearly stationary bands of showers and thunderstorms near a slow-moving low pressure area.
• Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Illinois, April 30, 2003$31 million · F1 · 42 eventsSupercell thunderstorms developed in the afternoon and evening north of a warm front that ran from Southern Iowa into Central Illinois. Three distinct supercells produced a majority of the wind, hail, and heavy rain reports from Jefferson County Iowa into Henry County Illinois.
• Flash Flooding and Flooding in Illinois, October 2 to 3, 20062 injured · $2.4 million · 1.75 in hail · 103 eventsSevere thunderstorms developed over northeast Illinois during the afternoon on October 2nd. These thunderstorms caused significant wind damage across parts of the Chicago Metro Area.
• Hail and Damaging Winds in Illinois, July 20 to 21, 2003$89 million · 80 kt wind · 11 eventsSupercell thunderstorms developed in the evening hours and formed an organized cluster around Waterloo, Iowa.
• Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Illinois, April 23 to 24, 2011$1.1 million · EF2 · 5 eventsBands of thunderstorms developed along a surface cold front extending from northern Arkansas northeastward along the Ohio River. Relatively strong diurnal heating occurred south of the front, where mixed-layer cape values increased to around 1500 j/kg.
• Tornado and Flash Flood in Illinois, September 3, 20181 death · $25,000 · EF0 · 18 eventsStrong to severe thunderstorms moved across portions of northern Illinois during the afternoon of September 3rd.
• Flash Flooding and Flooding in Illinois, May 14 to 15, 20201 death · $1,000 · 60 kt wind · 35 eventsScattered severe thunderstorms moved across parts of northern Illinois during the late evening of May 14th. Additional thunderstorms produced heavy rain and localized flash flooding during the late evening of May 14th into the morning of May 15th.
• Tornadoes and Hail in Illinois, January 22, 2012$292,000 · EF2 · 13 eventsA potent upper-level trough moved east into eastern Kansas and Oklahoma, before assuming a negative tilt and accelerating east-northeast across the Mid-Mississippi and Lower Ohio Valleys.
• Flash Flooding and Flooding in Illinois, July 11 to 31, 2017$17 million · 1 in hail · 16 eventsThunderstorms developed during the late evening of July 11th across far northeast Illinois and continued into the morning of July 12th producing torrential rainfall which continued over the same areas for hours producing flash flooding and major river flooding.
• Flooding and Hail in Illinois, September 18, 20131 death · 1 in hail · 8 eventsDuring the mid afternoon of September 18th a line of thunderstorms dropped southeast across northeastern Illinois producing strong winds. During the evening, a second round of thunderstorms trained over the Chicago metropolitan area producing large hail and minor flooding.
• Flash Flooding and Damaging Winds in Illinois, August 18 to 19, 2025$8.8 million · 56 kt wind · 24 eventsDuring the afternoon and evening of the 18th, a few rounds of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall to much of northern Illinois resulting in flash flooding. One particularly strong storm also produced damaging winds in DeKalb County.
• Tornadoes and Hail in Illinois, June 8, 20092 injured · $1.4 million · EF1 · 11 eventsThunderstorms rapidly developed along a surface frontal boundary from central Illinois into southern Missouri. Extreme instability and favorable wind shear ahead of the activity promoted organized and isolated supercell storms.
• Flash Flooding and Flooding in Illinois, July 27, 2006$3.8 million · 55 kt wind · 23 eventsTwo miles of high tension power lines and 31 utility poles were blown down along Interstate 57 near mile marker 284. Interstate 57 was closed for several hours. Corn fields were also flattened.
• Flash Flood and Damaging Winds in Illinois, June 25, 2003$6.0 million · 60 kt wind · 6 eventsThunderstorms developed over Southeast Iowa and West Central Illinois during the afternoon and evening hours producing heavy rain and strong winds of 40 to 60 mph. Rainfall of 2 to 5 inches occurred over a period of a few hours with most of it falling in about an hour.

Heavy Rain everywhereEvery kind of event in Illinois

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24.