Thunderstorms will be rolling into the Chicago area tonight, and they might be
severe. Heavy rains, too, seem likely. The same storm system battered the Plains with
three dozen tornadoes, one of which reportedly claimed four lives at a Boy Scout
camp near Little Sioux, Iowa.
When the eastern United States is warm, the West is often cool, which has been the
case in recent days. Cities like New York, Washington and Charlotte have set heat
records while the West has shivered.
Sporadic snows in excess of 15 inches have buried higher elevations of the Northern
Rockies and the Cascades.
UNPRECEDENTED FLOODING IN IOWA
Cedar Rapids, located on the Cedar River, is among Midwestern cities hardest hit by
flooding. Officials there have expanded mandatory evacuation in that city to areas
matching its 500-year flood-plain map. The Weather Service's River Forecast Center
in Chanhassen, Minn., predicts a flood crest of 24.5 feet on the Cedar River, 4.0 feet
above the previous record flood there in 1929.
