Unusual autumn flooding in Illinois and Missouri

Breaking News 24/7: Midwestern flooding is usually associated with the spring or summer, so even officials at the National Weather Service are perplexed about the unusual fall flood that is causing rivers to spill over their banks in parts of Missouri and Illinois. Heavy rain fell last week over much of the two states, causing flash flooding and rising rivers. In fact, October rainfall was at record amounts at many spots.

The autumn monsoons are hard to figure, said Benjamin Sittrell, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in suburban St. Louis. “Typically during the late-year period, it’s our driest portion of the year,” Sittrell said. “To see such astronomically high amounts of precipitation, where we got several inches above the previous record levels, is very abnormal. “I think there’s a lot of uncertainty about how this wet October unfolded.”

The flooding is generally pretty minimal compared to events such as the floods of last summer and those in the summers of 1993 and 1995, but some problems exist. Sittrell said thousands of acres of farmland are under water, particularly in the flat areas of southern and western Illinois, where the Illinois, Ohio and Kaskaskia rivers are among several that are flooding….

Jefferson, Missouri, flooding in 1993, image from the Army Corps of Engineers