Today
Has it rained enough in Chicago?
The last rain heavy enough to soak in fell over a week ago. What has fallen since wet the leaves and no more.
Chicago has had 18.4mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal October here brings 90.9mm — and the driest October in the last 30 years still managed 30.4mm. This is drier than anything on that record.
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
17 OctToday
Reached the roots
Rain that did not
one day of 14
Thirty years
Rain in Chicago through a normal year
Across a normal year Chicago gets about 985.3mm of rain, most of it in May (113.2mm) and least in February (56mm).
A normal October in Chicago has rain on 13 days. Only 9 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Chicago one of the wetter places this site covers in the United States in October — 15th of 30, against Seattle at the wet end (131.5mm) and Las Vegas at the dry end (8.4mm).
JFebMAMayJJASOND
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means
What that means for what you grow
- Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
- Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
- Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
- Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.