Astronomical summer officially begins at 3:50 p.m. on Thursday, when the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Cancer, according to the National Weather Association. Thursday will see nearly 15 hours and 14 minutes of daylight.

Environmental and consumer advocates predict more legal protections from the heat in the near future, as climate change continues to wreak havoc.

Multiple people have drowned in recent days as Chicagoans head to Lake Michigan to beat the heat. 

Last year the U.S. had the most heat waves — abnormally hot weather lasting more than two days — since 1936. In the South and Southwest, last year was the worst on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The U.S. has been thrashed with 11 extreme weather disasters with costs exceeding $1 billion so far this year, with a total price tag of $25.1 billion, according to an updated tally from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s tied for the second-most such disasters on record and doesn’t even include the extreme weather in the second half of May, said Adam Smith, an applied climatologist with NOAA.

Powerful tornadoes and storms swept through southwestern Michigan Tuesday evening, destroying homes and businesses and injuring several residents, scenes that could play out once again in the central and eastern U.S. Wednesday.

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.

It’s official, Chicago: February 2024 was the warmest in 153 years of recording keeping.

It was a wild day that saw Chicago just miss out on setting a record-high temperature for February before a powerful cold front moved through the region. 

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for the Chicago region, much of northern Illinois and parts of northeast Indiana, through 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The forecast for last week of February has a little something for everyone. Buckle in for a wild ride.

Sundogs form when waves of sunlight pass through ice crystals suspended in clouds. They resemble rainbows or halos, or can even resemble a second sun.

CPS announced classes will be in session for all students Wednesday as the frigid temperatures the city has seen this week have begun to dissipate.

The Chicago region remains under a wind chill warning Tuesday morning as bitterly cold temperatures persist.

“We have been carefully monitoring the forecast over the past 24 hours, and have determined that given frigid temperatures predicted for tomorrow, and a Wind Chill Warning from the National Weather Service that wind chills that could reach -30 degrees, it will be unsafe for staff and students to travel to school,” the school district said in a statement.

The first of two rounds of snow made for a snowy morning commute Friday, with a second round set to hit overnight into Saturday.