Special Marine Warning Issued for Lake Michigan Waters
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on July 12, 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 1:15 AM CDT due to strong thunderstorms with wind gusts to 50 knots.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Lake Michigan near Chicago and Northwest Indiana
- Issued
- July 12, 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 June 13 at 11:43 PM CDT until June 14 at 1:15 AM CDT. Severity: Severe. Urgency: Immediate. Certainty: Likely.
Affected Areas
Nearshore Waters from Calumet Harbor IL to Gary IN; Gary to Burns Harbor IN; Burns Harbor to Michigan City IN. Open Waters from Wilmette Harbor to Michigan City out to Mid Lake. Zones: LMZ743, LMZ744, LMZ745, LMZ779.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor immediately until hazardous weather passes. Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves.
Expected Conditions
At 11:42 PM CDT, strong thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 18 nm east of Harrison-Dever Crib to 10 nm southwest of Midway Airport, moving east at 25 knots. Hazard: Wind gusts to nearly 50 knots.
Timeline
Alert effective June 13 at 11:43 PM CDT and expires June 14 at 1:15 AM CDT.
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 (922 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to July 12, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.