Severe weather threatens Chicago area with hail, heavy rain and tornadoes

Tuesday will be a stormy day in the Chicago area, with severe weather chances increasing in the evening hours with hail, flooding, damaging winds heavy downpours and tornadoes all possible, the NBC 5 Storm Team said.

The severe weather threat comes as a line of storms bringing heavy rain, rumbles of thunder and lightning continues to move across parts of northeastern Illinois Tuesday morning. About 5:30 a.m., Live Doppler 5 Radar showed that line stretching from Kenosha down to LaSalle County, with heavy rain and lightning across DeKalb, Marengo, McHenry Waukegan and Antioch.

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The rain was already impacting early morning suburban commutes, NBC 5 traffic reporter Kye Martin said, especially on tollways.

“Non-severe,” NBC 5 Storm Team Meteorologist Alicia Roman said, of the storms Tuesday morning, “but lightning, heavy downpours, small hail all associated with this as they continue to move from the west to the east.”

Through 6:45 a.m., a ground stop for departures was in effect at O’Hare International Airport due to thunderstorms, a notice on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website showed.

By about 9 a.m., storms will move out of Illinois and into northwest Indiana, Roman said, leaving behind several hours of dry time.

About 5 p.m., a second round of showers and storms are likely to develop, Roman said, with “all weather hazards at play.”

‘Enhanced’ risk of severe weather

Tuesday night, a large part of the Chicago area will be at an “enhanced” risk of severe weather, which ranks as level three of five. The biggest risk of strong to severe weather will be across Chicago’s northern counties, Roman said.

“Most of Cook County, back to the west, including northern sections of LaSalle,” Roman said, of where the severe weather threat lies. “And all of our northern counties.”

According to the National Weather Service, any storms that develop between about 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. Tuesday will be capable of containing destructive hail, damaging winds, heavy downpours and even tornadoes, especially in far northern Illinois.

By about 8 p.m., the line of showers and storms will have spread across Ottawa, DeKalb, Rockford and Woodstock, pushing east. By about 11 p.m., it was expected to move into northwest Indiana.

“This is fast moving,” Roman said.

Overnight, another round of showers and storms were expected to develop over the same area, Roman said, though they may lower in intensity. Still, some could contain heavy rain and lightning and lead to flooding, the NWS warned, with hail and “embedded brief tornadoes possible.”