A woman jogs along the Lakefront Trail near North Avenue Beach, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
A tornado watch has been issued for a large part of northern Illinois through 10 p.m. Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
Storms could bring damaging winds and “apple size” hail, the weather service said. Scattered wind gusts could reach 70 mph.
The thunderstorms are a result of a cold front hitting the area following an unseasonably warm day Tuesday that reached 71 degrees in Chicago. The cold front could cause a 20- to 30-degree temperature drop within an hour.
Scattered t-storms are expected this evening (5 PM to 11 PM CST) with the threat that some storms could be severe. The main threats will be destructive hail and damaging winds but a few tornadoes are possible, especially for areas near and south of I-80. Stay tuned for updates! pic.twitter.com/4HgeQT0ngD
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) February 27, 2024
Tuesday night’s low could reach 17 degrees, and a chance of snow showers also is expected in Chicago.
A wind advisory is also in effect throughout most of northern Illinois until 6 a.m. Wednesday. The northwest winds are expected to be in the 20- to 30-mph range, with gusts of up to 45 mph, according to the weather service.
The recent unseasonably mild weather is amounting to what might become Chicago’s warmest February in recorded history.
Chicago’s warmest monthly average temperature for February was 39 degrees, set in 1882. Based on the weather so far and the latest predictions through the end of the month, this February is on track to barely top that record and reach a 39.2-degree average, according to the National Weather Service.