A tornado watch is now in effect for northern Illinois, eastern Iowa and parts of Wisconsin, including McHenry, Lake and Kane counties, until 8 p.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
The advisory noted that "a couple tornadoes" are possible and "scattered damaging winds" are likely with stronger gusts potentially reaching upwards of 75 mph.
"A fast-moving line of thunderstorms will race northeastward this afternoon across the watch area, producing corridors of locally damaging winds," the advisory stated. "A few embedded tornadoes are also possible along the line."
The watch has been issued for the counties of Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Fulton, Grundy, Henry, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kendall, Knox, Lake, La Salle, Lee, Livingston, Marshall, McHenry, Ogle, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island, Stark, Stephenson, Whiteside, Will, Winnebago.
The probability of the area seeing two or more tornadoes was listed as "moderate" at a 40% chance, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.
The chance of seeing one or more strong tornadoes, classified as a 2 through 5 ranking on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, was rated as "low" at 20%.