Chicago, Illinois – Evening storms could quickly disrupt travel across the Chicago and Milwaukee regions as a severe thunderstorm watch covering more than 15 million people remains active until midnight Wednesday, raising the risk of damaging wind, hail, and intense lightning.
According to the NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Severe Thunderstorm Watch 35 was issued at 5:40 p.m. CDT Tuesday and covers a large portion of northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, northwest Indiana, and western Michigan.
In Illinois, the watch includes heavily populated counties such as Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry, and Winnebago, along with Boone, DeKalb, Kendall, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside, Carroll, Rock Island, and Jo Daviess. The threat extends into Lake and Porter counties in northwest Indiana, placing the southern Chicago metro inside the watch zone.
Across Wisconsin, the risk reaches Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Waukesha, Rock, Walworth, Jefferson, Green, Lafayette, Iowa, and Dane counties, placing the entire Milwaukee metro and the I-94 corridor between Chicago and Madison under the storm watch.
Western Michigan is also included, with Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon, Allegan, Barry, Kalamazoo, and Van Buren counties inside the alert area, covering the Grand Rapids and Muskegon regions along Lake Michigan.
Storms that develop this evening may produce scattered hail up to apple size, wind gusts approaching 75 mph, and frequent lightning, which could down trees, damage power lines, and create sudden hazardous driving conditions on major routes such as I-90, I-94, I-55, and I-196.
Residents are urged to secure outdoor items, charge devices, and move indoors quickly if thunder is heard. Additional warnings may be issued rapidly if storms intensify before the watch expires at midnight Wednesday.
