Weather officials warned of a warm front moving through north central and northeast Illinois possibly creating nasty weather of thunderstorms, damaging winds and large hail.
There is an elevated thunderstorm risk as well as a tornado risk in several Illinois counties including Winnebago, Boone, McHenry, Lake, Ogle, Lee, DeKalb, Kane, DuPage, LaSalle, Kendall, Grundy, Kankakee, Livingston, Iroquois, Ford, as well as central, northern and southern Cook and northern, southern and eastern Will counties. In Indiana, there is also a threat for Lake, Porter, Newton, Jasper and Benton counties, the National Weather Service said.
Damaging winds up to 60 mph is expected and large hail up to a quarter in size. The storms are expected to hit Friday late afternoon mainly south of I-80, and may continue into the evening, officials said.
Thunderstorms are expected to become numerous and spread across the area as low pressure moves in during the night hours. There is a risk of flooding in areas hit by heavy rain Thursday, officials said.
Current afternoon conditions at O’Hare International Airport is mostly cloudy at 51 degrees. Farther south at Midway Airport its mostly cloudy at 53 degrees.
Temperatures are expected in the low 50s Friday dropping to the low 40s overnight.