Recent rains take a bite out of the drought, November rainfall running above normal

November-2024 off to a wet start—nearly two times normal to date officially at O'Hare Recent rainfall has brought drought improvement to the area according to the last from USDA. Across Illinois: The area of severe drought has decreased from 20% last week to 4% this week. The area of moderate drought has dropped from 62% last week to 46% this week. Drought has been erased across much of central and southern Cook county, that area is deemed as "abnormally dry" now.

Across Indiana: The area of severe drought has dropped from 35% to 29% and the area of moderate drought has declined from 70% to 50%.

Another round of beneficial rainfall late Wednesday into Thursday morning.

Heaviest area totals

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Potential Tropical Cyclone 19 formed in the Caribbean on Wednesday afternoon and is expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Sara on Thursday. Hurricane Watches have been posted for parts of Honduras with Tropical Storm Watches in northern Nicaragua. The NHC says Potential Tropical Cyclone 19 will continue to move westward toward the western Caribbean Sea, and Jamaica should see showers and thunderstorms associated with the system throughout the next day.

The swollen Benamargosa river in the region of Malaga swept dozens of cars away on Wednesday as heavy rain caused havoc in southern and eastern Spain. Emergency services in Malaga have moved 3,000 people from homes at high risk of flooding near the Guadalhorce River west of the city, and in other areas asked citizens to seek higher ground. All train services in Malaga province were halted, including the high speed train between Madrid and Malaga, while Malaga's train station was evacuated due to flooding, national rail infrastructure operator Adif said.

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