Please use and share the following Flooding Impacts link to allow the Office of Water Resources to better correlate gage readings through the system to community impacts.
The better the data that the office has, the better informed the decision-making process will be regarding water levels.
The Fox River Status Update for April 18, 2026 is available at https://dnr.illinois.gov/waterresources/strattonoperationsupdate.html
SUMMARY
This update is being released due to yesterday’s rainfall. Inflows are now forecasted to peak near 8700 cfs on Monday (Figure 1). Fox Lake is now forecasted to peak at ~7.3’ on Wednesday, with the Upper River and Pool will be slightly lower (Figure 2). The Lower River is expected to rise to near 8.00’ on the Fox River (Tailwater) Near McHenry Gage, that would exceed 2017 (Figure 3). There is currently between 0.25” and 0.50” of rain forecasted for the watershed over the next 7 Days, (Figure 4).
Aaron Rotherham
Project Engineer
IDNR Office of Water Resources
(217)782-4615
