diff --git a/Lib/test/support/warnings_helper.py b/Lib/test/support/warnings_helper.py
index c046f39fbff511d..93b3053a0100890 100644
--- a/Lib/test/support/warnings_helper.py
+++ b/Lib/test/support/warnings_helper.py
@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ def _filterwarnings(filters, quiet=False):
         registry.clear()
     # Because test_warnings swap the module, we need to look up in the
     # sys.modules dictionary.
-    wmod = sys.modules['warnings']
+    wmod = sys.modules.get('warnings', warnings)
     with wmod.catch_warnings(record=True) as w:
         # Set filter "always" to record all warnings.
         wmod.simplefilter("always")
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_warnings_helper.py b/Lib/test/test_warnings_helper.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..14f3cb79ef97215
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/test/test_warnings_helper.py
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+import sys
+import unittest
+from contextlib import contextmanager
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+from test.support import warnings_helper
+
+
+class WarningsHelperTests(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_check_warnings_when_module_is_not_in_sys_modules(self):
+        warnings_module = sys.modules.pop("warnings", None)
+        try:
+            @contextmanager
+            def catch_warnings(*, record):
+                self.assertTrue(record)
+                yield []
+
+            with patch.object(
+                warnings_helper.warnings, "catch_warnings", catch_warnings
+            ):
+                with warnings_helper.check_warnings(quiet=True):
+                    pass
+        finally:
+            if warnings_module is not None:
+                sys.modules["warnings"] = warnings_module
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tests/2026-08-29-20-15-00.gh-issue-156570.codex.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tests/2026-08-29-20-15-00.gh-issue-156570.codex.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..3a7cd1492a3f855
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Tests/2026-08-29-20-15-00.gh-issue-156570.codex.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix ``test.support.warnings_helper.check_warnings()`` failing with a
+``KeyError`` when lazy imports have not populated ``sys.modules``.