Flash Flood Warning Issued for Boone, Lake, and McHenry Counties in Illinois

Source: NOAA · Northern Illinois

This alert is no longer in effect.

NOAA issued it on April 25, 2026, 4 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).

Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.

The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Boone, Lake, and McHenry counties in Illinois until 2:00 AM CDT on April 18, 2026, due to heavy rain causing rapid-onset flooding.

Read this weather record in 30 seconds

Record type
Flash Flood Warning
Affected area
Northern Illinois
Issued
April 25, 2026
Issuing authority
NWS Chicago IL

Flood notices turn on location and timing. Treat the named area as this record's scope; do not assume nearby counties, parishes, or waterways were included.

Record status: historical. It was issued 4 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Northern Illinois.

Flash Flood Warning in Northern Illinois

Alert Details

A Flash Flood Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) Chicago IL. It is effective from April 17, 2026, at 8:12 PM CDT until April 18, 2026, at 2:00 AM CDT.

Affected Areas

The warning affects Boone County, Lake County, and McHenry County in Illinois. Specific locations that may experience flash flooding include Waukegan, Arlington Heights, Palatine, Buffalo Grove, Crystal Lake, Wheeling, Northbrook, North Chicago, Gurnee, Mundelein, Algonquin, Highland Park, Lake in the Hills, Round Lake Beach, McHenry, Belvidere, Vernon Hills, Woodstock, Zion, and Huntley.

What You Should Do

Persons along creeks, drainage ditches, and other waterways should take immediate precautions to protect life and property. Avoid areas prone to flooding as rapid-onset flooding is imminent or may already be occurring.

Expected Conditions

Thunderstorms are producing extremely heavy rain with rainfall rates up to an inch in less than 30 minutes. Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to locally over 2 inches are expected, leading to flash flooding in creeks, streams, drainage ditches, streets, underpasses, low-lying areas, and other poor drainage areas.

Timeline

The alert is effective from April 17, 2026, at 8:12 PM CDT and ends on April 18, 2026, at 2:00 AM CDT.

Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗

All Weather Alerts →

Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8

Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this NWS weather alert.

What is this NWS weather alert about?
The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Boone, Lake, and McHenry counties in Illinois until 2:00 AM CDT on April 18, 2026, due to heavy rain causing rapid-onset flooding.
Which agency issued this alert?
This alert was issued by NOAA. The original notice is available at the source link at the bottom of this article.
How severe is this alert?
This alert is classified as "high" severity. Take precautions and monitor for updates.
What area is affected?
This alert affects Northern Illinois. Check with NOAA for the most current geographic scope.
Where can I find more Weather Alerts updates?
Browse the full Weather Alerts feed on Areazine at areazine.com/weather/ for the latest updates from NOAA and other agencies.