Northeast Illinois and Northwest Indiana stormwater and emergency management contacts,
Yesterday, the National Weather Service released their final spring flood outlook update for 2020. The risk of flooding this spring (March, April, May) appears to range from near average to above average across the area. The greatest risk for flooding is in the Rock River Basin. Conditions have improved since earlier outlooks.
To determine the relative risk of spring flooding, numerous factors are considered including snow cover, soil moisture, and current river conditions. Soil moisture remains elevated across most of the Midwest and water levels range from near average to much above average. Snow cover and frozen soil, however, are no longer a concern due to warm weather. If you are interested in more details, please see our Spring Flood Outlook web page:
https://www.weather.gov/lot/spring_flood_outlook
It’s important to remember that although we are able to provide some indication of the relative risk of spring flooding, any weather system that produces heavy rainfall could cause flooding. Spring flood outlooks are not able to assess the risk of flooding due to heavy rainfall more than a week or so in advance.