The National Weather Service says eastern Lake County experienced winds of 80-90 mph during intense storms that brought at least seven tornadoes to the Chicago area Monday, knocking out power for hundreds of thousands.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said Thursday that heat and oppressive humidity across the region on Monday resulted in “extreme instability, providing ample fuel for severe weather.”
“A subtle weather disturbance interacting with the extreme instability yielded a fairly narrow corridor of thunderstorms from eastern Wisconsin into northeast Illinois in the late morning,” the weather service said.
“With an unseasonably high degree of wind shear in place, some of the storms quickly became severe,” the NWS said.
Intense supercell thunderstorms produced several confirmed tornado paths, extensive straight-line wind damage and damaging hail up to three inches in diameter, as they tracked southeastward into the early to mid-afternoon on Monday.
A line of severe storms originating from eastern Wisconsin caused additional scattered wind damage to portions of the Chicago metro area in the mid to late afternoon.
The NWS said that they have confirmed a total of seven tornadoes so far from the severe weather event.
Those included EF-0 tornadoes in Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, Downers Grove, Romeoville, Orland Park, Country Club Hills and Glenwood, and Lynwood.
The majority of the damage that occurred in and near the Chicago metropolitan area was caused by strong to destructive straight-line winds.
Portions of southern Cook and eastern Will counties, including Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, Sauk Village, Steger, Crete, Monee, University Park, Frankfort and Beecher, were among the hardest hit areas and experienced 80-90+ mph wind gusts that led to substantial tree damage and multiple instances of structural damage.
“The exceptionally moist air mass in place was conducive to torrential rainfall rates with the strongest storms, which resulted in areas of flooding. This included instances of notable flash flooding in some of the suburbs just outside of the city of Chicago,” the weather service said.
“The reality is that northern Illinois is experiencing a level of severe weather unlike what we’ve seen in recent years. In fact, our service area has already experienced more storms this year than in all of 2025, with five months remaining in the year,” ComEd said.
More than 530,000 customers were impacted by power outages.
Maywood, Crestwood, Bolingbrook, University Park, Chicago Heights, Glen Ellyn, Skokie, Waukegan and Libertyville were among the hardest hit, ComEd said.
Data showeds 11% of customers — over 32,000 homes and businesses — in Lake County remained without power as of noon on Tuesday.
More than 2,300 personnel were deployed across northern Illinois and were “working around the clock” to restore service earlier this week.
In Waukegan, flooding was reported on Green Bay Road north of Belvidere Road.
Waukegan Public Works crews are still tending to several calls, like downed trees.
In one case, a downed tree was reportedly completely blocking Yorkhouse Road east of Lewis Avenue.
In Gurnee, flooding was reported on Washington Street under Route 21 and parts of Grand Avenue on the east side of town.
A part of a tree fell on power lines in the yard of a home near West Keith Avenue and Green Place in unincorporated Waukegan.
In Zion, downed power lines caught the back of a house on fire in the 2900 block of Gilboa Avenue.
The Zion-Benton Public Library lost power and closed early.
In Lake Bluff, a vehicle stalled due to flooding at the Route 176 viaduct under Sheridan Road.
Significant flooding was reported on Audrey Nixon Boulevard at Sheridan Road in North Chicago.
In Lake Forest, emergency crews responded to live power lines that were down on Route 43 north of Conway Road.
Some drivers were reportedly driving over the wires as emergency responders scrambled to control traffic and shut down the road.
At Riverwoods Road and Duffy Lane in Lincolnshire, motorists were forced to detour due to power lines that fell.
In Deerfield, a tree fell and blocked the roadway at Deerfield Road and Woodward Avenue.
The Port Clinton Parking Garage in Highland Park experienced flooding and is closed until pump repairs are complete.
Malfunctioning traffic signals were also reported throughout the county.
The railroad gates on Route 137 just east of Route 41 in North Chicago malfunctioned, causing a major traffic backup during rush hour.
A myriad of other facilities like the Lake Forest Recreation Center, Lake Bluff Recreation Center and Lake Bluff Public Library were forced to close. The Waukegan City Hall building also lost power and closed.