Stormy weather canceled a number of activities in the Aurora area over the weekend, with the region finally getting a break from the rain on Monday.
Some parts of the Aurora area received over six inches of rain between Thursday and Sunday, according to Ricky Castro, meteorologist with the National Weather Service Chicago. Heavy rain began Thursday morning and continued through Sunday, causing the National Weather Service to place Aurora under a weekend flood watch.
In the Fox Valley, the weather caused the cancellation of many events on Saturday and Sunday.
An Aurora Oktoberfest event to be hosted by the Auroraland German Heritage Society and Kiwanis Club of Aurora at Phillips Park was rescheduled from Saturday, Sept. 19, to Saturday, Oct. 10, due to the predicted storms over the weekend, officials announced last Thursday.
The 2026 Fiestas Patrias Parade set for 11 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, in downtown Aurora was canceled due to the storms.
City officials said canceling the parade was a hard decision, as over 40 floats were scheduled to participate in the event and officials looked forward to celebrating Aurora’s strong Hispanic heritage, but the intense rain caused unsafe, slippery road conditions.
“We did not make that decision lightly,” said Jon Zaghloul, Aurora director of communications.
The Fox Valley Marathon, which was scheduled to begin Sunday morning in St. Charles at Mt. St. Mary’s Park and continue south to Aurora before returning to the finish line back at Mt. St. Mary’s Park, was canceled due to “dangerous conditions on course preventing officials and volunteers from completing setup for a safe runner experience,” according to a statement on the event’s website.
Beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, scores of volunteers were scheduled to meet at various locations along the Fox River as part of the annual It’s Our Fox River Day activities.
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It’s Our Fox River Day is an annual event coordinated by the Friends of the Fox River group on the third Saturday of September, and features river cleanups and community celebrations in towns along the Fox River from Waukesha, Wisconsin to Ottawa, Illinois.
However, due to rising water levels in the Fox River and rain throughout the previous night, many of the clean-up efforts in the Aurora area set for Saturday were canceled.
The scheduled clean-up events on Saturday in St. Charles, sponsored by the River Corridor Foundation in partnership with the St. Charles Park District and The Conservation Foundation, were canceled.
Laurel Moad, president of the River Corridor Foundation of St. Charles, said that officials began calling things off in St. Charles around 7 a.m. Saturday due to the adverse conditions.
“We feel bad about having to cancel this as many people look forward to it,” Moad said. “We’re just going to have to wait until next year.”
A clean-up event along the Fox River in Geneva on Saturday was also canceled due to the weather.
However, in North Aurora, a group did meet at the Island Park Pavilion for a clean-up effort along the Fox River on Saturday, led by Naperville resident Mike Huck, who was representing The Chicagoland Franciscan Justice Circle.
Huck said the group wanted to offer an event that would tie in with the environment and to mark the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi.
“He was the patron of ecology and we decided we wanted to do something with the public,” he said of the clean-up effort.
“Our water resources are threatened and even removing one candy wrapper makes a difference,” he said.
Aurora itself saw plenty of rain during the recent storms. Heavy rain Thursday through Sunday totaled 6.57 inches at the Aurora Municipal Airport and 6.52 inches at the Aurora NWS Cooperative Observer Program site near the intersection of Indian Trail Road and Mitchell Road, where volunteers collect rainfall measurements for the National Weather Service, according to Castro.
Castro said that 6.75 inches of rain fell in Sugar Grove, 4.97 inches in North Aurora, 5.3 inches in Batavia and 5.84 inches in Kaneville during the recent stretch of rain.
The daily rainfall totals between Thursday and Sunday either broke or nearly matched records for those dates at certain sites in the area, said Castro. For example, the over three inches of rain recorded at the Aurora Municipal Airport Thursday shattered a record for Sept. 17 at the site dating back to the 1990s, Castro said.
The northwest side of Aurora and areas close to Naperville were the hardest hit by rainfall and flooding over the weekend, said Theodore Van De Sampel, Aurora emergency management coordinator.
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Van De Sampel said Monday afternoon that he was not aware of any urgent resident concerns or closed roads resulting from the rainfall. He recommended residents turn around instead of attempting to drive on any flooded road they might find.
Van De Sampel and Castro both said residents can expect clearer skies ahead. Castro predicted no significant precipitation in the next 10 days and for temperatures to remain relatively cool.
Beacon-News reporter Addison Wright and freelance reporter David Sharos contributed to this report.