National Weather Service rain forecasts for 7/26-7/28
This graphic attempts to highlight the heavy rain threat in the next two days as depicted by the National Weather Service offices in the Quad Cities and Chicago. (Click the image to see a larger version.) It is important to note that rain will fall outside of these areas during the days specified; the discussions are attempting to place the axis of heaviest rain in the area in the next two days.
The NWS Chicago discussion in particular identifies areas north of I-80 as at-risk for heavy to excessive rain on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. By Friday morning, areas south of I-90 will be at the greatest risk for additional heavy to excessive rain. Chicago and most of the western suburbs fall in the zone where excessive rain may be possible during both the Wed/Thur and Thur/Fri periods.
This may be a particularly significant event, especially since soils are still moist-to-saturated from Saturday night’s rains. Stay tuned to the latest forecasts and up-to-date on the latest rainfall totals through Friday morning.
Forecast rain totals
Forecast rain totals for the next 3 days combined are currently in the neighborhood of 1-2″ (HPC). This amount does not take into account storms that training/backbuild over the same areas repeatedly; it is a broad-scale estimate of how much rain will fall in a large area. Higher amounts are to be expected in isolated locations.
