BLOOMINGTON - More rain is expected Tuesday after a band of overnight thunderstorms dumped several inches of rain across Central Illinois early Monday.

The thunderstorms rolled through just after midnight between Chenoa to the north and trailing off to the south through DeWitt and Piatt counties, said meteorologist Chris Geelhart with the National Weather Service at Lincoln.

LeRoy drenched

LeRoy received the heaviest reported rainfall with 3.53 inches of rain; Lexington received about 3.2 inches. A weather observer near the Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington reported 1.79 inches of rain.

In Farmer City, the storm deposited between 1 and 2 inches of rain from about 2 to 4 a.m. Farmer City Manager Trent Smith said it resulted in "a few branches down, but that's it."

'Just a lot of noise'

DeWitt County ESDA Coordinator Fred Zacher got up to check on the storm after seeing plenty of lightning, but the National Weather Service said it was mostly "just a lot of noise."

The rainy spring and summer has tested a major drainage project completed on Farmer City's west side last year. Rainfall in the past has resulted in flooding on the west side, but that problem seems to have been eliminated due to the $1 million project.

"It also helps everywhere else in town," added Smith. "Since it is drainage only, it doesn't go into the other sanitary (combined) sewer lines, so other areas of town also drain quicker."