The recent heat wave, coupled with lower than normal precipitation, has produced conditions ripe for what’s known as a “flash drought” in the Chicago area.
National Weather Service


The National Weather Service maintained an excessive heat warning through Wednesday evening for most of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, which have been dealing with the sticky humidity and soaring temperatures since Tuesday.

A supercell system walloped much of northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana on Monday night.

Chicago isn’t likely to break the 35-year-old record high of 99 degrees set for June 14 back in 1987, even though the heat index is expected to top 105 degrees. Which begs the question: What is the heat index?

Mild temperatures will give way to blistering heat this week, with the National Weather Service warning of temperatures in the mid-90s and peak heat indices of 110 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The combination of high temperatures and humidity sent heat indices soaring above 100 degrees Wednesday. Thursday will see more of the same.

Anchored a mile off Navy Pier, Chuoy the Buoy fills a Chicago-sized gap in shoreline monitoring. Swimmers, boaters, anglers, researchers and meteorologists alike will benefit from data collected close to the city’s lakefront.

April was the rollercoaster ride, weather-wise, Chicagoans have come to expect from spring's most capricious month.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Tuesday sent a “Hazard Alert Letter” to the Seattle-based e-commerce giant on Tuesday following the agency’s investigation into the deadly collapse of a company warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois in December. Six people died and another was critically injured in the tornado strike.

For the hundreds of thousands of Chicago Public Schools students kicking off their spring break Friday, it’ll look more like a snow day.

The weekend will kick off with subzero wind chills Friday night into Saturday morning, before milder temperatures move in Sunday, forecasters said.

A powerful line of thunderstorms ripped through the Chicago region Saturday night, with wind gusts topping 80 miles per hour. The wild weather continues Sunday with winter mounting a comeback.

Get ready to experience spring, a brief dalliance with summer, and then a return to winter – all in the coming weekend.

As enchanting as Lake Michigan's ice may appear, it’s unmistakably dangerous, as evidenced this week by the presumed drowning of an Indianapolis man who fell into the water off shelf ice at Indiana Dunes National Park on Monday.

An expected snow-making weather system took a swing south, downgrading anticipated accumulation in the Chicago area, according to the National Weather Service. The evening commute could still be messy.

Meteorologists have a clearer picture of the timing of Thursday’s winter storm, and it looks likely to snarl both the morning and evening commutes, especially in Chicago.