Illinois summers get more dramatic than people from out of state usually expect. Straightline winds, sudden downpours, and the occasional storm strong enough to knock out power for a block or two — it’s a normal part of the season here, and it’s genuinely hard on anything with a motor and moving parts, which describes both your garage door and your automatic gate.
Wind is the biggest factor for garage doors specifically. A door that’s not properly balanced or that has worn hardware can actually be pushed and pulled by strong gusts, and over enough storms, that stress adds up on the tracks, rollers, and opener. In the worst cases, high wind can push a door off its tracks entirely, especially an older door that wasn’t rated for it.
Power outages are the other summer storm problem, and this one’s more about being prepared than about damage. If your opener loses power mid-cycle, or the power’s out entirely when you need to get the car out, knowing where your manual release is — and that it actually works — matters more than most people realize until they’re standing in thedriveway during a storm trying to figure it out.
Automatic gates face a similar set of issues, plus one more: standing water. Heavy rain can pool near gate tracks and motor housings if drainage isn’t good, and that’s a real risk for the electronics in the gate operator. A gate that’s been sitting in water, even briefly, is worth having checked even if it still seems to be working — corrosion and electrical issues don’t always show up immediately.
None of this means you need to do anything dramatic before every storm. It means the basics — balanced door, solid hardware, a gate operator that’s properly sealed and elevated, and a manual release you actually know how to use — go a long way toward making sure a summer storm is just weather, not an emergency call.
If a storm already knocked something loose — door off track, gate not responding, anything like that — don’t wait it out. Check out our Emergency Garage Door Repair page, or our Gate Services page if it’s the gate that took the hit.
We respond to storm-related garage door and gate issues throughout the North Shore, including Lake Forest, Glencoe, Lincolnwood, and Highland Park.
