Special Marine Warning Issued for Lake Michigan from Winthrop Harbor to Wilmette Harbor
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on August 9, 2026, 2 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 from Winthrop Harbor to Wilmette Harbor until 2:00 PM CDT.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Lake Michigan near northeastern Illinois
- Issued
- August 9, 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 2 weeks ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Lake Michigan near northeastern Illinois.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning (event code MAW) has been issued by the National Weather Service Chicago IL. The alert is effective from August 9, 2026 at 11:53 AM CDT and expires August 9, 2026 at 2:00 PM CDT.
Affected Areas
The warning covers nearshore waters from Winthrop Harbor to Wilmette Harbor IL and open waters from Winthrop Harbor to Wilmette Harbor out to Mid Lake. Impacted locations include Winthrop Harbor and Waukegan Harbor.
What You Should Do
Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves. The recommended response is to avoid the area.
Expected Conditions
At 11:53 AM CDT, strong thunderstorms were located along a line extending from near Racine to 10 nm northeast of McHenry to 27 nm northwest of Elgin, moving east at 35 knots. Storms will be near the nearshore waters around 12:30 PM. Hazards include wind gusts 34 knots or greater and small hail.
Timeline
The alert is in effect from 11:53 AM CDT until 2:00 PM CDT on August 9, 2026.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
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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 (1,016 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to August 9, 2026.
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Common questions about this NWS weather alert.