Chicago weather: Powerful storms move through area with heavy rain, tornado threats

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Strong storms rolling through the Chicago area Saturday afternoon produced heavy rains and gusty winds with threats of tornado activity.

Thousands of people in the area were without power Saturday night, although ComEd officials said they expect power to be fully restored by late Sunday morning.

A reported tornado touched down in the McHenry County community of Harvard, about 70 miles northwest of Chicago, tearing down trees and causing some damage.

The storm brought high winds, powerful enough to knock over a tree onto Naomi Demay's truck. Fortunately, that was about the most serious damage, as the funnel cloud seemed to stay airborne for much of the time it was in the area near Harvard. While it caused little damage, it caused plenty of nervous moments for residents.

"It was scary," Demay said. "But everything turned out good."

The storm brought dark skies, rain, high winds and even golf ball-sized hail. Storm chasers tracked the funnel cloud as it formed overhead, but it never grew to the point of causing major destruction and it mostly stayed over the fields.

"I didn't see any damage, really to any buildings," said storm chaser Ben Rock. "There wasn't really any large debris when it hit. There was some small tree branches, small tree debris, which would be some of the leaves, smaller twigs and things like that."

In other areas, like the Northwest Side of Chicago, heavy rain was the issue. With the downpour and lightning in the area, fans were evacuated from Pitchfork Festival in Union Park for about 20 minutes.

Despite a tornado watch, none materialized. For much of the day, heat was the bigger issue not only for people, but for four-legged friends as well. The dog beach at Montrose Harbor was a busy place for dogs needing to cool off.

"I've always wanted to come with my dog, so I put it on my summer bucket list, things I wanted to do while I was home from college for the summer," Christine Albert said.

Meanwhile, waves of heavy rain soaked the city, leading to flash flooding all across the area.

Drivers in northwest suburban Park Ridge had to navigate flooded streets after heavy rain fell. High winds were also a problem, but there are no reports of any injuries or damage.