If you thought this season has been particularly rainy for the Chicago area – you aren’t wrong.
In fact, the rainfall totals this month broke a record.
So far, Chicago has seen 8.24 inches of rain in May alone, marking the wettest May on record since 1871. That breaks a record set in 2018 of 8.21 inches.
The total is more than double what the area normally receives for the month.
This season has also been the second wettest spring on record, with 16.36 inches so far. The record for wettest spring was set in 1983, which saw 17.51 inches.
When it rains, it pours! And sometimes it breaks records. We set a new record rainfall total for the month of May. Interestingly enough, the record we broke was set last year. We could see a few more storms today, so this total may climb. @nbcchicago pic.twitter.com/1eNuaZc0OT
— Andy Avalos (@AndyAvalosNBC5) May 30, 2019
And it’s not just Chicago. Rockford is also experiencing its second wettest May on record since 1906 with 8.93 inches, according to the National Weather Service. It is also currently in its third wettest spring on record with 15.28 inches. There, the spring record sits at 21.43 inches, which was set in 1973.
The recent rainy weather and storms have made for difficult conditions across the state.
Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday activated around 200 Illinois National Guard soldiers to assist with “urgent flooding situations along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.”
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“As we face historic weather in this state, the safety of our communities will always be my top priority, and every relevant state agency is working in concert to protect communities,” Pritzker said in a statement. “This morning, I activated the two hundred members of the Illinois National Guard to regions along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to assist in sandbagging operations and levee monitoring and reinforcement, with another 200 on standby. We have deployed more than two million sandbags, hosted multi-agency resources centers in impacted communities, and I issued a disaster declaration impacting 34 counties. My administration will continue using every tool at our disposal to protect impacted Illinoisans.”
