Lights on the Museum Campus will be out during upgrades to electrical equipment. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

Lights will be out in parking lots and along portions of the lakefront bike and pedestrian trails from 7 p.m. Friday to 8 p.m. Sunday.

(Brian Yurasits / Unsplash)

Alliance for the Great Lakes has collected 20 years’ worth of data from beach cleanups. Tiny plastic trash is a huge problem.

(Karolina Grabowska / Pixabay)

Chicago’s water has been tested numerous times for the presence of so-called “forever chemicals,” and the substances have never been detected.

Imani at Montrose Beach, April 2023. (Matthew Dolkart)

Wildlife officials are reporting that the season’s first Great Lakes piping plover, known as YibBee, has returned to his breeding grounds at Sleeping Bear Dunes. Will arrivals in Chicago be far behind?

(Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

Instead of trashing those vital eclipse glasses, recycle them at any one of dozens of Chicago locations.

(Nicole Cardos / WTTW News)

Nearly 2,000 people gathered at Triton College in west suburban River Grove to view the solar eclipse Monday afternoon.

Hundreds of people gather at the Adler Planetarium to view the eclipse on April 8, 2024. (WTTW News)

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Adler Planetarium in downtown Chicago for a viewing party. People brought telescopes, cameras and the necessary protective eyeglasses.

The moon partially covers the sun during a total solar eclipse, as seen from Eagle Pass, Texas, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo / Eric Gay)

It promised to be North America’s biggest eclipse crowd ever, thanks to the densely populated path and the lure of more than four minutes of midday darkness in Texas and other choice spots. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting. 

The 2017 solar eclipse. (Credit: NASA)

A total solar eclipse is set to move across the United States Monday afternoon with the path of totality sweeping from Texas up to Maine. Watch as it unfolds with NASA scientists. 

A city of Chicago outfall at the Wild Mile floating wetland installation on the North Branch of the Chicago River. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

“Chicago owns the most outfalls that discharge into the river system, and controlling what comes out of them is essential to reach our shared vision for a fishable-swimmable river that is accessible to everyone,” said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River.

(Ri Butov / Pixabay)

The Illinois Department of Transportation learned a lot from the traffic jam “hangover” that followed 2017’s solar eclipse: mainly to warn motorists to expect gridlock.

People wait at the 8th and Market PATCO station because of a suspension of service on PATCO, so that crews can check the tracks follwing an earthquake, Friday, April 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (Jessica Griffin / The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

While there were no immediate reports of serious damage, officials were checking bridges and other major infrastructure, Amtrak slowed trains throughout the busy Northeast Corridor, and a Philadelphia-area commuter rail line suspended service out of what it said was “an abundance of caution.”

Promontory Point. (Eric Allix Rogers / Preservation Chicago)

An independent engineering study has concluded Promontory Point’s limestone blocks are still functioning as ample shoreline protection, which refutes a longstanding position held by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Firefighters with the Anchorage Middletown Fire Department check houses for gas leaks following severe storms that passed through Prospect, Kentucky, April 2, 2024. (Timothy D. Easley / AP via CNN Newsource)

Sixteen tornadoes were reported Tuesday and Wednesday morning across Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, along with dozens of damaging wind reports, including gusts topping 100 mph in Kentucky. The Illinois tornado was reported by a trained weather spotter Tuesday near Manteno in Kankakee County, according to the National Weather Service.

Total solar eclipse, Aug. 21, 2017, photographed from Madras, Oregon. (NASA / Aubrey Gemignani)

The Great American Eclipse is almost here. Here’s how to make the most of the experience in Illinois and the Chicago area.

Breakwater structures being constructed along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Illinois Beach State Park. (Courtesy of Michels Construction Inc.)

Illinois Beach State Park in Zion on the state’s northern border contains about 10% of Illinois’ Lake Michigan shoreline, with 6.5 miles. But the undeveloped shoreline can erode up to 100 feet per year.