Sixth rainy Friday in a row

For the sixth week in a row, it's raining on a Friday.

The rain that began falling overnight is expected to drop about an inch an a half before it leaves the area sometime Friday evening.

In the meantime the National Weather Service has issued a flood watch until Friday evening for much of the Chicagoland area, including all of Cook County.

The rain is expected to slow or stop by about 6 p.m. this evening, but it will turn windy and cooler with lows in the mid-40s.

It's expected to be about 50 degrees with partly cloudy skies for trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

The ground is already saturated, and the rainfall will bring runoff with rapid rises on river and waterway levels, alerts from the National Weather Service said.

Because of the heavy rain in October, the Fox River has risen steadily over the past month, to a point where officials at the Fox Waterway Agency have declared a no-wake status on the lower river between the Stratton Bolger Lock and Dam in McHenry and the Algonquin Dam.

In addition, motorists should be ware of standing water on roadways and expressways throughout the morning, Illinois State Police officials said.