Air Quality Alert in effect as Canadian wildfire smoke follows front bringing widespread rain
An Air Quality Alert is in effect as Canadian wildfire smoke has been blown in behind a slow-moving rain system and cold front.
The National Weather Service has issued the alert for McHenry, Lake, Kane, DuPage, Kendall, Cook, Grundy and Will counties in Illinois until midnight Thursday.
The slow-moving system produced waves of steady rain and moved into the Chicago area overnight, thoroughly soaking ground and roads and making for a messy morning commute for many.
While the day will remain rainy, the bulk of the precipitation will fall in the morning and taper off through the afternoon. Severe storms aren't expected; instead, the chief threat is ponding on roads.
Some areas have already seen 1 to 2 inches of rain from this system, and scattered showers will continue through the day. Rain is expected to shift east of Chicago late Wednesday afternoon, but scattered showers could persist in parts of Northwest Indiana overnight.
A line of severe storms passed through the Chicago area Tuesday night, causing downed trees, power lines and other damage in McHenry County.
A large tree fell on a home in Harvard, Illinois, bringing down power lines at the same time. People were inside the home at the time but no injuries were reported, officials said.
Around the same time, a downed power line caught fire in Marengo and caused a road to be shut down for over an hour. In Woodstock, a tree fell on utility lines at Jackson and Douglas streets.
