Wednesday will be a rainy day from start to finish across the Chicago area, with waves of showers “pretty much all day long” and severe weather possible.
The forecast comes as flood watches and warnings continue for nearly all of northeastern Illinois after heavy downpours, hail and lightning pummeled parts of the area Tuesday. Tuesday night, tornado sirens could be heard across multiple suburbs, with confirmed tornado touchdowns in Wisconsin and Iowa.
In Illinois Wednesday morning, Live Doppler 5 Radar showed much of the Chicago area already covered in rain, with clusters of heavy downpours in Cicero and Oak Park.
“Another one moving through Grundy and Kendall Counties,” NBC 5 Storm Team Meteorologist Alicia Roman said, “along with McHenry county and back to the west.”
“Relentless rain” was expected to last from morning until night, Roman said, with some locations seeing rain “at any point of the day.”
The rain and storms could impact both the morning and rush hour commutes as flooding and ponding on streets, highways and under overpasses continues, NBC 5’s Lisa Chavarria said. According to the website FlyChicago, 82 flights out of O’Hare International Airport were canceled, with nearly 100 delays reported.
More severe weather possible
Later Wednesday, one or two of the storms could be on the strong or even potentially severe side, Roman said, with the entire Chicago area under a “slight” risk of severe weather, which ranks as level two of five.
Those storms could contain winds gusting as high as 60 mph, heavy rain leading to flooding and even hail.
“We’ve already had reports out of McHenry of pea-sized hail,” Roman said.
Scattered t-storms, initially over far northern Illinois as of the 2-3 AM hour, are expected to gradually expand southward into the AM hours. Strongest storms will be capable of producing brief strong wind gusts (up to 50-60 mph) and hail (up to 1″ in diameter). #ILwx #INwx pic.twitter.com/KZAjMVZVWk
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) April 15, 2026
Rain was expected to continue falling Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. By afternoon, things would start to dry out, with another round of rain and storms late Friday into Saturday, Roman said.
Saturday also brings the chance for more strong to severe storms, Roman added, followed by a quiet weather pattern “all the way through next week.”
Rain totals
Wednesday was expected to be the “rainiest” of the last couple days, Roman said, with more inches expected to be added to totals.
As of Wednesday morning, 3.0 inches had already fallen in Antioch, with 3.2 inches of rain in Algonquin and 3.4 in Glencoe.
According to the National Weather Service, 2.43 inches of rain fell at O’Hare, making Tuesday the sixth rainiest April day in Chicago on record.
A daily record rainfall of 2.43” was set at #Chicago-O’Hare yesterday (shattered previous record of 1.21″ from 1949). This was the rainiest April day at ORD since 4/18/2013 (3.54″). The 2.43” that fell yesterday makes it the 6th rainiest April day on record for Chicago. #ILwx
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) April 15, 2026
