By WJBC Staff
SPRINGFIELD – Tropical Storm Gordon has provided a wet start to September in Illinois.
The statewide average precipitation this month has already hit three and a half inches, more than three inches above normal according to State Climatologist Jim Angel.
“We’ve already gotten a month’s worth of rain in the first 10 days of the month,” said Angel. “There’s been some areas that have been really dry this year that finally got some rain. There are some areas of Western Illinois that have been dry since spring, and those areas have gotten four to eight inches of rain.”
Angel said the wet weather is due to Gordon and a cold front that passed through Illinois.
“It’s a little bit unusual but not unheard of to have tropical storms move their way up the Mississippi River valley and get into Illinois,” Angel said. “When they do, they tend to prduce quite a bit of rain over very large areas.”
The highest rain total was east of St. Louis in Clay City with more than 10 inches.
