<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3d2w3p_1E5CiVVt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3d2w3p_1E5CiVVt00" width="1623" height="1080" ><figcaption>Photo credit: Shutterstock.com/ Pau Buera</figcaption></figure><p>A line of severe thunderstorms moved through the Chicago area Today, prompting warnings across Cook, DuPage and Kane counties until 2 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. The storms first developed over Wisconsin around 11:30 a.m. before reaching the Chicago area around 1 p.m., bringing gusty winds in excess of 60 mph and quarter sized hail in the strongest cells. Counties including McHenry, Lake, Kenosha in Wisconsin, LaPorte in Indiana and Berrien in Michigan were placed under separate severe thunderstorm watches through the afternoon and into the early evening as the broader system moved east. The National Weather Service and local meteorologists warned that heavy rain, damaging wind and isolated large hail were possible with the strongest storms, along with a small chance of an isolated tornado.</p><h2>Is a second round of storms still expected tonight?</h2><p>Forecasters say a second, more widespread round of storms remains possible between 8 and 10 p.m., though the outcome depends heavily on how the earlier storms behaved. According to ABC7 meteorologist Jaisol Martinez, if the first round of storms overperforms and pulls enough energy out of the atmosphere, the evening round may end up weaker than expected or fail to develop at all. The Chicago area spent the day under a level 2 out of 5 severe weather risk from the Storm Prediction Center, with flooding considered the more likely hazard overnight compared to the midday storms.</p><h2>Did the storms affect travel at Chicago’s airports?</h2><p>Yes, and the disruption spread to both of the Chicago’s airports as the afternoon wore on. A ground stop took effect at <a href="https://rollingout.com/2026/04/18/chicago-ohare-cutting-flights-summer/">O’Hare International Airport</a> just before noon and was extended as conditions continued, running through at least 2:30 p.m. with officials leaving open the possibility of a further extension, according to the FAA. Midway Airport was added to the list just before 1 p.m. with its own ground stop running through 2:15 p.m. Under the ground stop rules, flights bound for Chicago were held at their departure airports around the country, and O’Hare was also reporting separate departure delays on top of the ground stop itself. Travelers flying through either airport Today were encouraged to check status directly with their airline given how quickly the situation was changing.</p><h2>What does the forecast look like for the rest of the week?</h2><p>Monday in Chicago is expected to bring highs in the mid 80s with another chance of strong to severe storms, particularly in the afternoon and evening hours, and meteorologists have flagged it as its own alert day given ongoing uncertainty about storm development to the north and west of the city. Tuesday should stay mostly cloudy with highs again in the mid 80s and another round of <a href="https://rollingout.com/2026/08/09/wisconsin-storms-warnings-milwaukee-southeast/">storm</a> chances. Wednesday looks similar with a chance of rain and storms, before conditions trend drier and cooler by Thursday, when highs are expected in the upper 70s to around 80. Friday looks like the best day of the stretch, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the upper 70s, though rain chances return Friday night and into Saturday.</p><h2>Should residents expect more severe weather Monday?</h2><p>Possibly, though confidence remains lower than it was for Today’s system. Meteorologists are watching how storms developing to the north and west organize before determining how much of Monday’s activity reaches the <a href="http://weather.com/en-NG/us/illinois/city/chicago/today">Chicago</a> area directly. In the meantime, residents dealing with ongoing storm chances through midweek should keep an eye on official alerts rather than assuming the unsettled pattern has fully passed after Tonight’s storms clear.</p><p>The broader pattern reflects a stretch of unusually active summer weather across the region, with rounds of storms arriving on consecutive days rather than isolated one off events. That kind of repeated activity can saturate the ground and raise flooding risk even when individual storms are not unusually severe on their own, since already wet soil and full waterways have less capacity to absorb additional rain. Residents in flood prone areas of Cook, DuPage and Lake counties in particular may want to monitor localized flood warnings separately from the broader severe thunderstorm alerts, since flooding can develop and pose a risk even after the wind and hail threat from a given storm has passed.</p></div></body>

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A line of severe thunderstorms moved through the Chicago area Today, prompting warnings across Cook, DuPage and Kane counties until 2 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. The storms first developed over Wisconsin around 11:30 a.m. before reaching the Chicago area around 1 p.m., bringing gusty winds in excess of 60 mph and quarter sized hail in the strongest cells. Counties including McHenry, Lake, Kenosha in Wisconsin, LaPorte in Indiana and Berrien in Michigan were placed under separate severe thunderstorm watches through the afternoon and into the early evening as the broader system moved east. The National Weather Service and local meteorologists warned that heavy rain, damaging wind and isolated large hail were possible with the strongest storms, along with a small chance of an isolated tornado.

Second Wave of Chicago Storms Poses Fresh Threat Before Midnight

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A line of severe thunderstorms moved through the Chicago area Today, prompting warnings across Cook, DuPage and Kane counties until 2 p.m., according to th

Second Wave of Chicago Storms Poses Fresh Threat Before Midnight

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