Flood outlook for Illinois.
251 NOAA river gauges report in Illinois. 18 are forecast at or above action stage, and 4 are already reading at or above it.
Gauges across Illinois.
One dot per NOAA river gauge. Filled dots carry a current forecast; hollow rings report an observation only.
207 of these gauges carry no current forecast and are drawn as hollow rings: present, and explicitly not forecast. That is not a statement that flooding is not expected there — NOAA's river forecast centres issue forecasts for a subset of the network, and the rest of these gauges only report what the water is doing now.
- Major flooding0 forecast · 1 observed
- Moderate flooding1 forecast · 0 observed
- Minor flooding4 forecast · 0 observed
- Action stage13 forecast · 3 observed
- No flooding26 forecast · 181 observed
- Low water0 forecast · 2 observed
At or above action stage in Illinois.
Recorded October 1, 2026. Every row says whether the category is a FORECAST — the highest level still ahead — or an OBSERVATION taken at the gauge. They frequently disagree.
| Gauge | Reading | Level | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Branch Du Page River Near Warrenville | observed | 18.0 ft | Major flooding |
| Rock River At Moline | forecast | 13.4 ft | Moderate flooding |
| Des Plaines River Near Russell | forecast | 7.6 ft | Minor flooding |
| Fox River At Dayton | forecast | 12.0 ft | Minor flooding |
| Mississippi River At Gladstone | forecast | 10.1 ft | Minor flooding |
| Rock River Near Joslin | forecast | 13.9 ft | Minor flooding |
| Des Plaines River Near Des Plaines | forecast | 13.6 ft | Action stage |
| Des Plaines River Near Gurnee | forecast | 6.5 ft | Action stage |
| Des Plaines River Near Lemont | forecast | 9.7 ft | Action stage |
| East Branch Du Page River At Bolingbrook | forecast | 18.3 ft | Action stage |
| Edwards River Near New Boston | observed | 16.8 ft | Action stage |
| Fox River At Algonquin Tailwater | forecast | 9.0 ft | Action stage |
What these categories mean.
The two things worth understanding before drawing a conclusion from this map.
Each gauge carries two independent readings. The forecast is the highest level still ahead in the river forecast centre's current forecast — which is what makes this map forward-looking. The observed category describes the gauge's latest actual reading. A gauge can be quiet now and forecast to reach minor flooding in two days, or the reverse. A gauge with no forecast is not a gauge forecast to stay dry; it is a gauge NOAA has not issued a forecast for.
Driftwise re-serves NOAA's own categories from a copy refreshed hourly. We do not issue forecasts, we do not issue warnings, and this page can be up to an hour behind. For flood warnings in Illinois, and for anything you would act on, use theNational Water Prediction Serviceand your local National Weather Service office; for life-safety information, follow your local emergency management agency.
See Illinois on the live map.
This page is a still frame. The national map is interactive — pan, zoom, filter, and read every record behind what you see here.
NOAA’s river forecast centres call the next few days at every forecast gauge in the country, on the National Weather Service’s own flood categories — action, minor, moderate and major.
More on Illinois.
Every Driftwise public map covers Illinois. No login, no paywall.
Watershed Explorer
Click any point in the country — or search a subbasin, gauge or lake by name — and read what nine federal datasets say about it: flow, drought, fire, smoke, flood forecast, satellite cyanobacteria screening, land cover, critical habitat and Clean Water Act impairment, each one labelled with what it is actually a fact about.
Wildfire & Smoke Map — Illinois
Official NIFC fire perimeters and incident points under NOAA’s HRRR-Smoke near-surface forecast, filterable by size, state, and containment.
Streamflow Map — Illinois
Every reporting USGS stream gauge in the country, coloured by how today’s flow ranks against that gauge’s own record for this calendar day.
U.S. Drought Map — Illinois
The U.S. Drought Monitor — the country’s official weekly drought assessment — drawn across five severity categories from D0 to D4.
Impaired Waters Map — Illinois
Every subwatershed in the country against the states’ own Clean Water Act assessments — what is impaired, what is still on the 303(d) list, what is causing it, and how much of the country nobody has assessed at all.
Cyanobacteria Bloom Map — Illinois
NASA and EPA’s satellites read a pigment index over roughly 2,300 U.S. lakes large enough to resolve at 300 m. A pre-screening indicator, not a health assessment, and never a substitute for your state’s advisory.
Critical Habitat & Protected Waters Map — Illinois
Every river and stream the federal government has designated as ESA critical habitat, the listed species each unit is designated for, and who manages the protected land around it.
Flood outlook by state.
Every state, with the number of NOAA gauges at or above action stage there. The national map covers all of them at once.
- Alabama6 at or above action
- Alaska2 at or above action
- Arizona3 at or above action
- Arkansas98 gauges
- California1 at or above action
- Colorado282 gauges
- Connecticut55 gauges
- Delaware2 at or above action
- District of Columbia8 gauges
- Florida30 at or above action
- Georgia1 at or above action
- Hawaii75 gauges
- Idaho224 gauges
- Illinois21 at or above action
- Indiana285 gauges
- Iowa52 at or above action
- Kansas18 at or above action
- Kentucky193 gauges
- Louisiana8 at or above action
- Maine1 at or above action
- Maryland7 at or above action
- Massachusetts4 at or above action
- Michigan204 gauges
- Minnesota381 gauges
- Mississippi163 gauges
- Missouri32 at or above action
- Montana277 gauges
- Nebraska46 at or above action
- Nevada104 gauges
- New Hampshire2 at or above action
- New Jersey3 at or above action
- New Mexico3 at or above action
- New York1 at or above action
- North Carolina6 at or above action
- North Dakota2 at or above action
- Ohio308 gauges
- Oklahoma213 gauges
- Oregon301 gauges
- Pennsylvania355 gauges
- Puerto Rico119 gauges
- Rhode Island1 at or above action
- South Carolina1 at or above action
- South Dakota230 gauges
- Tennessee216 gauges
- Texas17 at or above action
- Utah95 gauges
- Vermont58 gauges
- Virginia9 at or above action
- Washington285 gauges
- West Virginia190 gauges
- Wisconsin5 at or above action
- Wyoming215 gauges
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