Benton, Illinois Weather
Benton, Illinois — live current conditions, hourly and 7-day forecasts, NWS alerts, radar and satellite imagery, soil and crop conditions for Benton, Franklin County.
Full aviation weather for Benton is published on the Benton Municipal Airport (KH96) page, 2 km away. It carries the current METAR decoded into plain language — surface wind, visibility, cloud layers and ceiling, temperature and dewpoint, and altimeter setting — alongside the raw observation as transmitted. 6 airfields within reach of Benton have their own pages, listed below.
The Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) is shown across its full validity period, with each change group broken out so you can see when conditions are expected to shift. Flight category is derived automatically — VFR, MVFR, IFR or LIFR — from reported ceiling and visibility, with runway details and field elevation alongside. Observations update roughly hourly and forecasts several times a day.
Other airports near Benton: Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois (KMWA) 29 km · Mount Vernon Outland Airport (KMVN) 37 km · Southern Illinois Airport (KMDH) 38 km · Harrisburg-Raleigh Airport (KHSB) 38 km · Pinckneyville Du Quoin Airport (KPJY) 39 km
Conditions reported at KH96 describe the airfield itself. Weather 2 km away can differ, particularly in terrain or near the coast. For conditions at Benton specifically, see the current conditions and forecast above.
Soil conditions, frost risk and crop weather for Benton.
About Benton, Illinois
Benton lies in a gentle embrace of Southern Illinois, where the land begins to hint at the Appalachian foothills to the east, offering a terrain of rolling hills and broad, fertile valleys. It lies 55.9 miles west of Posey, IN (from Posey, IN: bearing 270°T), and is situated 6.9 miles north of West Frankfort. The sky here is a vast, changeable canvas, often painted with dramatic cloud formations that drift lazily across the open expanse, casting fleeting shadows on the patchwork of fields and wooded areas. The air, particularly in the late afternoon, carries a faint, earthy scent of damp soil and distant woodsmoke, a subtle perfume that speaks of the agrarian roots and the quiet persistence of nature. The streets of Benton themselves possess a worn, comfortable character, lined with sturdy buildings that have weathered the seasons, their brick and mortar bearing witness to the steady passage of time, and the rhythm of daily life unfolds with a grounded, unhurried grace. This corner of Franklin County carries the indelible imprint of coal, a history that shaped its very foundation and continues to resonate in its landscape and the resilient spirit of its people. For generations, the deep veins beneath the earth provided sustenance and identity, carving out a legacy of hard work and community forged in the shared labor of the mines. Though the era of large-scale underground extraction has largely receded, the echoes of that industrial past remain, a quiet testament to the generations who toiled there, and the economic shifts that have seen agriculture and service industries now play a more prominent role in Benton's present. The nearby Rend Lake, a vast artificial reservoir, offers a more modern facet to the region’s character, providing recreational opportunities and a shimmering expanse of blue that contrasts with the deep, dark memory of the earth’s bounty.
Live animated radar for Benton and surroundings — RainViewer.
NOAA GOES-16 GEOCOLOR — live animated loop updated every 10 minutes. Shows cloud cover, storm systems and weather patterns across the continental US.
Source: NOAA/NESDIS GOES-East · Public domain · Auto-updates on page reload
| Location | Benton, Franklin County, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 37.996716°N, 88.920068°W |
| Timezone | Central Time (America/Chicago) |
| ZIP Code(s) | 62812 |
| Area Code | 618 |
| Page generated | September 2026 |
| Weather data | Open-Meteo (open-source), NOAA National Weather Service |
About This Benton, Illinois Weather Page
This page provides live weather conditions and forecasts for Benton, Illinois, including current conditions, a 24-hour hourly forecast, 7-day outlook, NWS extended text forecast, precipitation radar and NOAA GOES-16 satellite imagery. Aviation weather — live METAR observations and TAF forecasts — is published separately on the pages for the nearest reporting airports, linked from the aviation section above. Additional sections may include tide predictions, wave height, wave direction and sea-surface temperature, a barometric pressure trend, and a solunar-based fishing forecast with a fishing-conditions rating for coastal localities, and soil temperature, crop weather and live USGS river gauge data for agricultural areas near a monitored waterway. All data updates automatically on every page visit.
Location data for Benton includes coordinates 37.996716°N, 88.920068°W, situated in Franklin County. ZIP code 62812. Telephone area code: 618. Timezone: Central Time (America/Chicago).
Weather data is sourced from the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) and the open-source Open-Meteo API. River and stream data is sourced from the USGS National Water Information System. Tide predictions are sourced from NOAA CO-OPS; marine and solunar data are modeled from Open-Meteo and public sunrise/moon calculations and should be treated as a general guide alongside on-the-water conditions. Radar is provided by RainViewer. Satellite imagery is sourced from NOAA/NESDIS GOES-East and is public domain.
