Special Marine Warning for Lake Michigan Near Chicago
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on July 6, 2026, 6 weeks 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.
NWS Chicago has issued a Special Marine Warning for nearshore and open waters of Lake Michigan until 3 PM CDT due to a strong thunderstorm producing 40 knot wind gusts.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Lake Michigan near Chicago and Northwest Indiana
- Issued
- July 6, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Chicago IL
Marine notices apply to named waters or shoreline zones. They may not describe conditions on land, even when the nearest place name is the same.
Record status: historical. It was issued 6 weeks ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Lake Michigan near Chicago and Northwest Indiana.
Alert Details
Special Marine Warning issued by NWS Chicago IL. Effective from 2026-06-11T12:58:00-05:00 until 2026-06-11T15:00:00-05:00. Severity: Severe. Urgency: Immediate. Certainty: Likely.
Affected Areas
Nearshore Waters from Wilmette Harbor to Calumet Harbor IL; Nearshore Waters from Calumet Harbor to Michigan City IN; Open Waters from Wilmette Harbor to Michigan City out to Mid Lake. Locations impacted include Harrison-Dever Crib, Wilmette Harbor, 31st Street Harbor, Monroe Harbor, Burns Harbor, Calumet Harbor, Indiana Harbor, Montrose Harbor, Burnham Harbor, Hammond Marina, Jackson Park Harbor, and Belmont Harbor.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor until hazardous weather passes. Frequent lightning is occurring with this storm. If caught on the open water stay below deck if possible, keep away from ungrounded metal objects.
Expected Conditions
At 1257 PM CDT, a strong thunderstorm was located 7 nm northeast of Aurora, or 25 nm west of Montrose Harbor, moving northeast at 35 knots. Hazard: Wind gusts to 40 knots. Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves.
Timeline
Alert effective immediately on 2026-06-11 at 12:58 PM CDT and expires at 3:00 PM CDT the same day.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
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.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,246 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to July 6, 2026.
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Common questions about this NWS weather alert.