Waterlogged

Areal flood warning is in effect through early Monday morning for Lee, DeKalb, southeastern Ogle, southern Boone, and southern McHenry Counties. An areal flood warning means that small rivers and streams, as well as low-lying areas, may have flooding occurring now or soon. Stay away from floodwaters! If you come across a flooded roadway, do not try to cross it. Turn around, don't drown!

After such a dry August, why are we suddenly so wet? We can blame the remnants of three tropical systems - Gustav, Lowell, and Ike. Gustav (red) gave us that first steady rain. Lowell (orange), which formed in the Pacific, sent a surge of tropical moisture in our direction yesterday and is the cause for the significant rains over the past 24 hours. Ike (pink) will send another round of tropical rain northward through tomorrow. The brunt of the heavy rain should stay generally south of US20.

With the remnants of each system tracking nearby, the rainfall swaths have come over or very near Rockford each time. Fortunately, no tropical activity is expected to be in the Gulf for the foreseeable future, and no fronts look to be in our neck of the woods for at least a week.