Flood Warning Issued for Cook County, Illinois
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on April 15, 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 Flood Warning for Cook County, Illinois, due to expected moderate flooding on the Des Plaines River.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Flood Warning
- Affected area
- Cook County, Illinois
- Issued
- April 15, 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 Cook County, Illinois.
Alert Details
A Flood Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) Chicago IL. This alert is for moderate flooding and is effective from April 15, 2026, at 10:32 AM CDT.
Affected Areas
The warning affects Cook County, Illinois, specifically the Des Plaines River from Palatine Road in Prospect Heights downstream to Irving Park Road in Chicago, including the Des Plaines gauge. It also involves areas near Des Plaines and Lincolnshire, impacting Cook and Lake Counties.
What You Should Do
Persons along rivers and streams in the warned area should take immediate precautions to protect life and property. Avoid the affected areas as flooding is imminent or may already be occurring.
Expected Conditions
Moderate flooding is forecast for the Des Plaines River. At 9:45 AM CDT on April 15, 2026, the river stage was 14.9 feet, and it is expected to rise above the flood stage of 15.0 feet. At 18.5 feet, Big Bend Road in Des Plaines will be threatened.
Timeline
The alert was sent and became effective on April 15, 2026, at 10:32 AM CDT, with onset at 11:17 AM CDT on the same day. It expires on April 16, 2026, at 4:45 AM CDT.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
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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.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,156 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to April 15, 2026.
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