Some areas receive 8 to 9 inches of rain

The rain started during the early morning hours of Saturday in the Union County area...and kept on coming...

...into Sunday...Monday...and continued on Tuesday afternoon.

The National Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md., reported on its website Monday afternoon, Aug. 15, that the heavy rain was the result of a “stalled frontal boundary” which stretched from Texas into the Ohio River Valley.

That stalled frontal boundary brought with it rainfall which topped 8 and 9 inches in some parts of Union County during the period from Saturday through Tuesday.

Unofficial reports of more than 9 inches of rain were measured in Wolf Lake. Nearly 8 1/4 inches of rain fell in the Cobden area, again based on unofficial measurements.

Weather observer Dana Cross recorded 6.13 inches of rain on Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Jonesboro.

Rainfall amounts included 2.94 inches of rain on Saturday, 2.55 inches on Sunday and .64 of an inch on Monday.

Cross said that during a downpour which happened around noon on Saturday, rain was falling at a rate which was equivalent to 5.54 inches per hour.

As the deluge unfolded on Saturday morning, the Union County Sheriff’s Office reported on Facebook that it was receiving multiple calls about bridges that had been washed out, as well as roads and highways that were covered with water.

Part of Illinois Route 146 near Ware was underwater on Saturday.

Part of the Morgan School Road near Clear Creek, west of Jonesboro, also was under water.

A creek was reported to have overflowed a bridge on Rhine Road near Alto Pass.

The sheriff’s office also posted that personnel from the Union County Highway Department and the Illinois Department of Transportation had crews at work on flooded roads.

The Union County Highway Department reported that local roads and bridges appeared to have made it through the latest round of severe weather in fairly good shape.

Some damage was reported in the Alto Pass area, where a band of some of the heaviest rain fell.

The highway department reported that the approaches to several bridges sustained damage. Crews worked on Saturday, Sunday and Monday to fix the damage.

The National Weather Service office in Paducah began to warn people in the region about the possibility of very heavy rain starting Thursday, Aug. 11.

“The potential for heavy rain is highest starting Saturday, when tropical moisture will move into the area,” the weather service posted on its website.

“The heaviest rainfall will mainly occur in the Saturday through Monday time frame,” the weather service stated in a forecast which turned out to be quite accurate.

Flash flood warnings and watches were issued by the weather service a number of times during the heavy rain. The warnings and watches covered Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri and Western Kentucky.

The rain and overcast skies did keep temperatures fairly mild in the area.

Following are temperatures for Aug. 9-15 as recorded by weather observer Dana Cross in Jonesboro:

                                      H L

Tuesday, Aug. 9          93 66

Wednesday, Aug. 10   97 70

Thursday, Aug. 11       94 73

Friday, Aug. 12            92 75

Saturday, Aug. 13        79 73

Sunday, Aug. 14          79 71

Monday, Aug. 15         82 72

The above slideshow features the weather in different parts of Union County.