A warm front is lifting northward through Chicagoland, creating a favorable environment for severe storms going into the evening hours. Damaging wind gusts, large hail, and tornadoes will be possible with any storms that become severe. Following the storms this evening, skies will become partly cloudy tonight with lows in the 40s.

A tornado warning was issued in northwest Indiana and most Chicago-area counties saw severe thunderstorm warnings on an eventful Sunday afternoon.

Several Illinois counties are under a tornado watch as a storm moves northward through the state.

Hurricane-force winds were also reported in parts of the area. Wind gusts topped out at 81 mph in Valparaiso, Indiana, 75 mph in Lakes of the Four Seasons in Indiana, and 74 mph in Gary, Indiana, and Lynwood, Illinois.

Several states in the central U.S. were hit hard overnight by a deadly storm that reportedly caused flash flooding and even destructive tornadoes.

Hail and massive wind gusts pelted the Chicago area as severe thunderstorms rumbled through Sunday afternoon. The system had prompted a tornado watch covering most of northeastern Illinois and northwest Indiana, but the National Weather Service canceled it by 3:15 p.m. with storms rolling out over Lake Michigan.

The Storm Prediction Center has areas southeast of I-55 in an "Enhanced Risk," this is a level 3 of 5 on their severe risk scale. Locations near and along I-55 are in a "Slight Risk" (level 2 of 5), and then north and northwest portions of Chicagoland are in a "Marginal Risk" (level 1/5).

A massive storm hitting the central U.S. on Wednesday could spin up damaging tornadoes and dump heavy rain from northern Texas to the Great Lakes.

National Weather Service weather balloon releases — tracking temperature, pressure and wind speed — have been temporarily suspended in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, because of staff shortages and reduced at six other sites in the Midwest and Great Plains, according to agency memos.

Up to 72 million from Texas to Michigan are under severe storm risk as heavy rains, flash flooding and strong tornadoes are forecast to hit the lower Ohio Valley and the mid-South.