Chicago Weather: Second round of storms bring hail, downpours, some damage
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A second round of strong spring storms moved across the Chicago area Monday night, unleashing sudden downpours and hail, especially in the western suburbs.
The rain caused high-standing water on the inbound side of the Kennedy Expressway at the Eisenhower Expressway overnight, but that cleared out by around 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Storms were mainly south of the city Tuesday morning. After the rain clears out, conditions will be mainly sunny and cool Tuesday with highs in the upper 60s. The Chicago area is not expected to see rain again until the weekend.
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A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is in effect until 10 p.m. for most of Chicago area, including the following counties: Cook, DeKalb, Lake (Ill.), DuPage, Will, Kankakee, Grundy, LaSalle, Kane, Kendall, Livingston, McHenry, Iroquois, Boone, Winnebago, Ogle and Ford.
The storm unleashed nickel-sized hail as it rolled across the western suburbs, and driving rain made driving hazardous.
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"Couldn't see. I pulled over a couple times to get here, and I just barely made it here. And by the time I got here, it stopped," said Mike Mazzulla, Elmhurst resident.
Near downtown Elmhurst there was flash flooding.
Northwest suburban Des Plaines and Park Ridge also got soaked.
In DuPage County fierce winds down trees.
"Boom! I heard, like, a huge boom, and I looked outside, and it was still falling and I see a car run off," said witness Phillipe Perizchia.
As the storm barreled east, angry clouds unleashed a punishing rain and caused water to bubble up from drains. Small hail added to the nasty conditions.
And more storms are expected to pass through the area overnight as well.
At Chicago's airports, O'Hare had nearly 350 flight cancellations and delays averaging 45 minutes and Midway had nearly 50 cancellations and delays averaging 30 minutes.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District urged people to limit their use of water before and during rain storms. Officials said that frees up capacity in the sewers to collect all that rain.
MORNING STORMS CAUSE FLOODING IN NORTHERN SUBURBS
Morning storms brought heavy rain, lightning and hail, causing some problems in the far northern suburbs with flooding and road closures.
The morning storms caused havoc for commuters. In Gurnee, both northbound and southbound lanes of Highway 41 State Highway 21 and Delaney Road were closed because of the rain.
In addition to Highway 41, standing water forced officials to close Grand Avenue at O'Plaine Road and flooding caused a partial blockage on Washington near Green Bay Road in Waukegan.
Early Monday, the ABC7 Stormtracker checked out conditions on the roads on Belivdere Road in Waukegan, where there was a steady downpour of rain and some standing water. In Northbrook on the inbound Edens Expressway, drivers were taking it slow with the rain making the roads slick.
The storms dropped more than an inch of rain in many places, and Gurnee received 2.13 inches of rain. Fox Lake received 1.86 inches of rain and Round Lake received 1.79 inches of rain.
