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.

The input from residents will help communities create strategies and take action to reduce the future risk of death, injuries and property damage from natural disasters, officials said.

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.

Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, against BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell and their largest trade association, the American Petroleum Institute.

Temperatures reached a high of 57 degrees in Chicago on Thursday. As the city experiences an El Nino year, 2024 is seeing temperatures about 1 to 3 degrees above average.

The results of Department of Streets and Sanitation's snowplow naming contest are in and we can confirm that Chicago truly is a Tom Skilling kind of town.

Airlines can’t control the weather, but they are still required to provide refunds for customers whose flights are canceled. Here’s what to know about your rights, and what to know when cancellations start piling up.