Chicago residents faced a volatile day of weather on Thursday as a line of thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois, prompting a Flood Watch and flight disruptions at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
A Flood Watch has been issued for large parts of the Chicago metropolitan area, including Boone, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Kankakee, Lake, Lee, La Salle, McHenry, Ogle, Winnebago, Cook, Grundy and Will counties, among others.
The deteriorating weather has also affected one of the nation's busiest airports, with a ground stop issued at Chicago O’Hare International Airport due to thunderstorms.
According to the FAA's latest update, the average delay for flights due to the ground stop is 7 hours and 17 minutes.
Thousands of residents have been affected by outages, flooding, and storm damage, with more than 400,000 customers experiencing outages at the peak of the event.
Emergency response agencies reported over 4,100 tree emergencies, nearly 1,500 debris calls, and hundreds of traffic signal outages.
