Record-breaking rainfall leaves hundreds of streets and basements flooded

Record-breaking rainfall left hundreds of streets and basements flooded in the Chicago area by Friday morning.

O'Hare International Airport, the official climate site of Chicago, recorded 1.92 inches of rain — shattering the daily record of 1.18 inches for Jan. 8 set in 1935, according to the National Weather service.

Further south, Midway recorded 2.06 inches and southwest suburban Bridgeview and Homer Glen recorded 2.58 inches and 2.77 inches of rain respectively, the weather service said. Winds reached 30 to 40 miles-per-hour with gusts reaching as high as 50 miles-per-hour.

Most of the rain fell in a roughly four-hour window, between 6 and 10 p.m. and caused widespread flooding in streets and basements throughout the metro area.

"Climatologically, this is quite an anomaly," Todd Kluber, a meteorologist with the weather service, said of the heavy rainfall rates. "Also, the ground is already saturated so we're not necessarily able to absorb some of that precipitation because of the snow that we've had recently."

Chicago data shows 209 water in basement complaints and 518 water on street complaints were logged on Jan. 8.

As of 9:02 a.m. Friday, 94 water in basement and 209 water in street calls were logged for Jan. 9, the data shows.

Including both water in basement and water on street complaints from Thursday through 9:02 a.m. Friday, the Chicago Lawn neighborhood ranked first in complaints with 65 total, according to city data. Ashburn, Lake View, and Austin had the next most complaints reported with 47, 46 and 44 respectively.

Of the city's 77 neighborhoods, residents in 71 of them called 311 to file a complaint related to water in a basement or street from 8 a.m. Thursday to 9 a.m. Friday, according to city data.

The 518 water on street complaints logged on Jan. 8th was the fifth-highest single-day total for such complaints since 2019 and the most in a single day since April 2, 2025, according to the data.

Kluber said a lack of vegetation this time of year and the absence of a warmer atmosphere to dry up the ground also factor into the flooding.

"When the rain falls that heavy and that quick, there's nowhere for that water to go other than runoff versus being absorbed into the ground, so that runoff just finds the lowest location it can get to," Kluber said. "In a more urbanized area you have flat surfaces where the water can run to different locations and start to overwhelm retention systems."

Thursday's flooding comes after summer storms drenched parts of the city and surrounding suburbs, particularly on the West and Southwest sides.

Last November, Gov. JB Pritzker asked President Donald Trump to reconsider the decision to reject about $620 million in disaster-relief funding to help residents impacted by widespread flooding.