Wind advisory, elevated fire risk Friday for northern Illinois; more storms possible

Numerous northern Illinois counties are under a wind advisory for Friday afternoon and evening.

The National Weather Service issued the advisory just before 11 a.m. Friday for the counties of McHenry, Will, Lake, Ogle, Lee, DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, LaSalle, Grundy, Winnebago, Boone and DuPage, as well as much northern, central and southern Cook County.

The advisory is expected to run from 3 p.m. to midnight Friday, with wind speeds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts of up to 50 mph possible, according to the weather service.

The high winds will blow unsecured objects around. Tree limbs could be down and power outages are possible – which could come on top of damaging winds that upended utility poles and trees throughout the region Thursday evening. People should secure objects outside and use extra caution when driving, since the winds can make driving difficult, especially “high profile vehicles,” the weather service said.

Rural areas that didn’t get much rain could see “sharply reduced visibility” because of blowing dust, according to the NWS.

Much of the region is also under an elevated fire risk Friday until early evening, according to the weather service.

“Strong south to southwesterly winds gusting to 45 mph along with relative humidities to around 25 percent will result in an elevated fire danger through early evening, particularly for locations where little to no rain occurred on Thursday,” the weather service said.

Fires “that start in these conditions will have an increased risk of spreading quickly,“ the weather service said.

People should avoid or delay outdoor burning, be extra cautious with farm machinery and fully extinguish cigarettes or matches before proper disposal, the weather service said.

Scattered severe storms could be back in the area Friday, with the greatest potential for storms south and east of Interstate 55, according to the weather service. The storms could come in the 4 to 10 p.m. timeframe and severe storms could bring damaging winds and damaging hail, according to the NWS.

Alden Township in McHenry County lost a communication tower during storms Thursday, McHenry County Emergency Management Agency Director David Christensen said.

As of 10:45 a.m., Friday, about 700 McHenry County customers were without power, down from about 3,000 Thursday, according to ComEd. About 1,400 customers in Will County were without power.

“We know some of you are without power and we appreciate your patience as crews work to restore outages. Based on the history of similar storms of this size, across the ComEd service area, we expect 80% of outages to be restored by 11 p.m. on Friday, 5/16 with remaining outages restored by 3 p.m. on Saturday, 5/17,” the utility company said on its website.

The NWS received a report of thunderstorm winds uprooting a tree in Spring Grove, Zachary Yack, a meteorologist at the weather bureau said.