Today may bring a third straight day of 80-degree readings, but it’s coming to an end. The rest of the week is likely to be much more like fall – temps only reaching the mid 60’s. The NWS is yet to distribute final numbers, but it’s expected to show September was the warmest in 20 years.

Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford tells the News-Gazette up until this past weekend, September was dry, less than 2 inches of rain. The average high recorded by the Illinois State Water Survey in September was 83.3, also more than 5 degrees above normal. Ford said “We almost doubled the monthly rainfall over the weekend.

Indeed, much of Champaign, Vermilion, Ford and Iroquois counties were either considered abnormally dry or in moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. But that was last updated Thursday, and Ford expects the weekend rain to change the drought situation in this week’s report.

“We did receive quite a bit of precipitation in northern Champaign County, Ford County,” he said. “It looks like over the last week, this area, northern Champaign County, got between 1.5 and 2.5 inches of rain. As you move north, Ford and Livingston counties got about 4 inches.”

The weekend storms were caused by a large high-pressure system in the southeastern U.S., Frame and National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Baker said.

94.1 WGFA