Strong storms were sweeping through the Chicago area Saturday evening, bringing damaging winds, hail, and torrential rain.
The waves of storms will be aggravated by the heat in Chicago, where temperatures reached the mid-90s on Saturday afternoon.
Strong storms with wind gusts of up to 60 mph began moving into northern Illinois from Wisconsin around 3 p.m. The storms also have brought hail up to the size of ping pong balls.
A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued through 7 p.m. for Cook, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Kendall, Lake, Will, and DeKalb counties in Illinois; and Porter and Lake counties in Indiana.
Several severe thunderstorm warnings were issued late Saturday afternoon and early Saturday evening, but have since expired, although another round of storms was moving in from Wisconsin, and could bring more severe weather.
A flash flood warning also has been issued for DuPage County until 7:30 p.m. In Lisle, nearly 2.5 inches of rain fell in about 45 minutes as the storms moved through.
A large tree came down in Belvidere, near Rockford, hitting a house on Union Avenue.
Kayla Perez
The Woodstock Fire/Rescue District said they responded to multiple calls for downed wires after storms started moving through. Officials warned people to assume any downed wires are powered and dangerous, and to stay away. Motorists should never drive over or try to move downed wires in their path.
Waves of strong storms are expected to continue through around 7 p.m. before moving off to the southeast.
More heavy rain and storms are possible early Sunday morning before things calm down later in the day.
