Dear Mr. Skilling,
Was the "record rain" this past weekend really a record? I remember more than nine
inches of rain back in mid August in 1987.
Steve Platko, Prospect Heights, Ill.
Dear Steve,
Although your memory is correct, a record was established. Chicago logged 9.35 inches
of rain Aug. 13-14, 1987 --2.86 inches the 13th and 6.49 inches the 14th -- and that
two-day event stands as the city's greatest rain event.
Sept. 12-13-14, 2008, brought less rain: 8.45 inches officially (0.37 of an inch the
12th, 6.64 inches the 13th and 1.44 inches the 14th). But the 6.64 inches on Sept. 13
established a calendar-day rainfall record by surpassing the August 14, 1987, total.
The recent rain and resultant flooding was far more widespread, affecting all of
metropolitan Chicago (including northwest Indiana), whereas the 1987 event affected
only extreme northwest Chicago and the northwest suburbs.
