Live cameras in McHenry, United States

McHenry is a city of about 27,000 people in McHenry County, in the far northwest corner of the Chicago region, around forty-six miles from the Loop. The Fox River runs along its eastern side, which gives the town its nickname, the Heart of the Fox River, and a summer life built around boats, riverside restaurants and marinas. Settlers arrived in the 1830s, and the town took its name from Major William McHenry, who served in the Black Hawk War. A few miles upstream the river opens into the Chain O'Lakes, a busy boating area, and to the southeast lies Moraine Hills State Park with its marshes, trails and Lake Defiance.

The cameras attached to McHenry come from the Illinois Department of Transportation and are shared through its Gateway traveler information system as still pictures that refresh every few minutes. They are there for drivers, so they show lanes, signals and pavement rather than scenery. Illinois Route 31 and Illinois Route 120 meet in the center of town and carry most of its through traffic, including a lot of weekend traffic heading for the lakes along the Wisconsin line.

Good times to check

McHenry follows Central Time with daylight saving from March to early November. Summer weekends are the busiest stretch on the local roads, especially Friday afternoons and Sunday evenings when boaters and cottage owners come and go. In mid-July the city holds Fiesta Days, a long-running festival of about eleven days with a parade, carnival and concerts. Winters are cold and snowy, and the views help show whether plows have reached the outlying routes after a storm. December sunsets come shortly after four thirty, so evening rush-hour images in winter are taken in the dark.

Nearby are Crystal Lake to the south, Woodstock to the west with the town square seen in the movie Groundhog Day, and Volo, home of a large auto museum.

Sources: McHenry, Illinois - Wikipedia · Moraine Hills State Park - Illinois DNR · Illinois DOT Gateway Traveler Information.