In continuing with the spirit of breaking records in 2019, we just broke another one thanks to our string of rainy days so far this May.
Since May 1, we've logged 22 days that have featured at least 0.01" of rain or more right here in the Quad Cities. When you do the math, that's 71% of our total days so far this month. Remarkable! This stretch of 22 days beats out the previous record-setting rainy period of 21 days set back in May of 1933. With the additional heavy rains from Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, we are now logging the sixth wettest May on record with close to nine inches of rain. That's more than five inches above normal. The record wettest May took place in 1974 when more than 11 inches of rain fell during that month.
Some of the rainfall reports coming in for the last 48 hours dating back to Monday are quite significant. A wide swath of two to four inches has fallen from the Quad Cities and points south. All of this rain will be working its way into the local river system these next few days, creating new rises and crests.
For the Rock River, rises are expected at Joslin and Moline. Joslin will return to Moderate Flood Stage by Friday, with a rise of roughly two feet expected. Meanwhile, further downstream in Moline, the Rock River will return to Major Flood Stage by Friday with a foot rise expected. Back upstream towards Como and Dixon, modest rises into the action stage are expected which will cause minor flooding.
The Mississippi River will also continue to rise with most locations reaching moderate to major flood stage by the upcoming weekend. Here in the Quad Cities, a crest of around 20.5 to 21.5 feet is expected. These numbers will remain fairly constant so long that we don't get any additional heavy rainfall.
The pattern does begin to quiet down some as we head into Thursday and the upcoming weekend, with chances for widespread heavy rain and severe weather remaining quite low.
Meteorologist Andrew Stutzke
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