Fox River hits crest at 14.5 feet; now receding

Fox River flood waters lap at Highway W, east of Highway JI , on Friday afternoon.

Fox River flood waters lap at Highway W, east of Highway JI , on Friday afternoon.

The Fox River hit its crest at 14.5 feet early this morning and is now slowly receding, according to the National Weather Service.

The high water mark was recorded at the New Munster gauge at 12:45 a.m. Subsequent readings have been slightly lower showing the river is receding.  At 4:45 a.m., the river was measured at 14.45 feet.

The crest of 14.5 is the third highest on record for the New Munster gauge. The highest is 15.18 feet on  June 15, 2008  and the second highest is 14.98 feet on Aug. 24, 2007.

The NWS  hydrologic forecast for the river shows a slow retreat. The level is not expected to dip under 14 feet until Tuesday morning. The current seven-day forecast has the river remaining just under 13 feet on Friday. But that is a best case scenario of sorts. Hydrologic forecasts only account for rain “amounts expected approximately 24 hours into the future from the forecast issuance time,” the NWS says.

A flood warning remains in effect.

The only rain in the forecast this weekend is a 20 percent chance Sunday. There’s a 60 percent chance of rain Monday night and Tuesday, according to the current NWS forecast. 

Illustrating the change in weather from last year to this year is that the two lowest levels on record were 4.72 feet on July 16, 2012 and 4.99 feet on Oct. 8, 2012.

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9 Comments

  1. karen schultz says:

    I would check my facts and figures about the highest water there ever recorded. back in 2000 i believe it rained for well over a week straight and our basement in Silver Lake on Lake view dr. had 4 feet of water. Lake view dr. itself had a current running down it—you could see the funnels of water. Silver Lake itself was inches from cresting over Cogswell dr. ( hwy B)—the Silver Lake fire dept was going from 1 flooded house to another for days. FEMA was involved for months. im sure thats the highest ever recorded water for hwy 50 or New Munster or Wheatland or Shorewood Terrace or anywhere. check it out—-not 2008

  2. Karen: The crests I quote come right from the National Weather Service, the ultimate source on such matters. You can see them for yourself here (scroll down when you get to the page): http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=mkx&gage=nmsw3
    I’m not a flooding expert but maybe there was some other contributing factor to making the flooding so bad in 2000 around Silver Lake. It seems to me that it used to take less of a crest to cause more problems than it does now. What has changed?

  3. Heather says:

    Do you know when 50 will reopen?

  4. allen says:

    Karen……I can tell you without a doubt 2008 was the worst I have ever seen for the river. There are less houses due to the buyout program so it doesn’t affect near as many. Lived on the river all my life and can 100% tell you 2008 was worse than 2000……atleast on the river

  5. That’s good point about the buyout program, Allen. That is likely where my perception came from that less water used to cause more harm. It was those additional people/homes being affected.

  6. allen says:

    Also…..I don’t think Karen realized that a beaver dam on the creek the drains from the lake to the river was at fault for the higher lake level that year. They had to remove the dam with explosives to fix the problem.

  7. Chris says:

    What year did the Wilmot damn fail and then was removed?

  8. The following website says it was removed 1992 citing a DNR document. http://www.funonthefox.com/board/viewtopic.php?p=96311

  9. greenhead says:

    I made dvd of history flooding on the chain,have viedo of the Wilmot Dam, damaged & was taken out april 1992.

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