O'Hare, Midway Flights Canceled, Delayed By Summer Storms

CHICAGO — Some travelers using Chicago’s two major airports have either seen their flights canceled or delayed on Wednesday after an early-morning round of thunderstorms rolled through the region.

A total of 68 flights were delayed at Midway Airport, where three flights were canceled earlier in the day, according to the website FlightAware, which monitors air traffic at the nation’s airports. All three of the canceled flights were on Southwest Airlines, which also accounted for 60 percent of the delays that have taken place at Midway.

Delays were much more prevalent at O’Hare International Airport, where 192 flights were delayed and five were canceled, according to FlightAware. The majority of delays were experienced at O’Hare by travelers using Sky West, which reported 58 delays while United Airlines reported 42 delays, and American Airlines and Envoy Air each reported 21 delays due to unsettled weather conditions.

The National Weather Service issued a thunderstorm warning for parts of Cook, Kankakee, and Will counties, which expired at 9:45 a.m. A ground stop was issued at both airports earlier in the day while the most serious weather moved through the region.

National Weather Service officials said that between 2-4 inches of rain fell across the area during the storm. Spotty showers are expected to stick around Wednesday afternoon, forecasters said before warm temperatures and humidity move out of the region Wednesday night.

Temperatures are only expected to be in the low 70s on Thursday.

The ground order at O’Hare and Midway came a day after United Airlines planes were grounded temporarily on Tuesday due to a system-wide technology issue.