LINCOLN -- Tired of wet weather yet?
Bad news: You may want to keep your umbrella close by for the next few months.
Chris Miller is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln. He said a “perfect storm” of factors have led to above-average precipitation this year - and flooding.
“When we look at the Illinois River, we gotta look at what’s falling up in Northern Illinois as well, what’s feeding into the Illinois, and some heavier snowfall late in the season and then warm temperatures melting that very quickly, and then rain on top of that has just compounded the situation," he said.
Miller said a jet stream consistently carrying storms from the southwest has also contributed to our moist year.
“We’ve had way above, you know, record levels of precipitation, that has, you know, just continued right through the spring, and in the longer range outlooks, we see wet weather continuing through most of the summer," he said.
Miller said more another inch to an inch and a half of rain is forecasted for this weekend. Tributaries and creeks flowing into the Illinois River will be impacted first, he said, but Central Illinois isn't expected to get enough rain to cause more major flooding any time soon on the Illinois River. The river crested at 26.87 feet on June 2. The flood waters are expected to continue slowly receding, Miller said.