The 2026 Chicagoland Storm Report

The Question We Set Out to Answer

Homeowners ask us a version of the same question after every storm: was this actually a big one, or does it just feel that way? Nobody publishes a plain answer for Chicagoland, so we built one. The question we fixed before counting anything: how many days in 2026 brought hail, damaging wind or a tornado to the eight-county Chicagoland area, which towns were named, and where is the source for each?

We wrote the counting rules before we looked at the result, and we're publishing the rules alongside the findings so anyone can check our work or disagree with it.

What We Counted, and What We Left Out

Counted: every calendar day (Chicago time) between January 8, 2026 and August 21, 2026 that had, in at least one of Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry or DeKalb County, any report of hail of 1 inch or more, a wind gust of 58 mph or more or a wind report that describes damage, or any tornado.

Left out: days with only flooding, winter weather, or hail and wind reports below those thresholds, and storms that stayed outside the eight counties. We counted days, not individual reports, so a day with five tornado reports counts once. That choice makes the total conservative. Where a report was later corrected by the weather service, we used the corrected figure.

Sources: the NOAA Storm Events Database for the dates it covers, and National Weather Service Local Storm Reports and Storm Prediction Center reports for later dates. We compiled and counted them; we did not generate the underlying observations. Every storm day in the table links to its sources, and the full log is published as structured data. We checked through October 23, 2026.

Findings

Chicagoland logged 33 storm days across 225 days, which is one roughly every 7 days from January 8, 2026 to August 21, 2026. 8 of those days included a tornado report. The largest reported gust was 104 mph (Goodenow, Will County, July 27, 2026) and the largest reported hail was 4.8 inches (Darien, DuPage County, March 10, 2026).

Days by type (a day can have more than one): 27 wind, 12 hail, 8 tornado.

Which Communities Appeared Most

The result that surprised us: the communities at the top of this list are not the ones that got the news coverage. Coverage follows tornado tracks, which are narrow. Straight-line wind and hail cover whole counties, so a town can be named on three separate storm days without ever making the evening news, and its roofs take the accumulated damage anyway.

By County

Every 2026 Storm Day

All 37 days in the log, newest first, including days with flooding reports only. Your policy sets its own deadline to report a loss, so check your declarations page or ask your agent. The date beside each row is the storm date, which is what your insurer will ask for. The table is plain HTML, so it works with scripts off.

Peak figures are the largest value among the qualifying reports for that day, stated as the source reports them. A blank gust means the reports describe wind damage without a measured speed. "Reports" counts the qualifying reports behind the row, with duplicates between sources merged.

Storm Recaps

Days with a written recap or a weather-service event summary, oldest first.

• 2026-03-10: March 10, 2026 DuPage County Hail NOAA Storm Events lists 4.8 inch hail at Darien in DuPage County on March 10, 2026, among 17 reports across Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties. Other places named include Aurora, Bolingbrook, Joliet, La Grange and Plainfield.
• 2026-04-17: April 17, 2026 Storm Reports NOAA Storm Events lists 7 wind reports on April 17, 2026 in Cook, DeKalb, Kane, McHenry and Will Counties, with a highest gust of 66 mph at Riley. Places named include Beecher, Rolling Meadows and St. Charles. The data for our counties contains no tornado and no hail report that day. The tornadoes NOAA lists for April 17 were outside our service counties.
• 2026-04-27: April 27, 2026 Wake Low Wind Event NWS Chicago describes a wake low on April 27, 2026 that brought a 1 to 2 hour period of damaging non-thunderstorm winds across the Great Lakes region. NOAA Storm Events lists a highest gust of 63 mph in DeKalb County among 10 reports. Our counties in the reports are Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane and Lake, and the places named include Sandwich, Sugar Grove, Sycamore, Elgin and Warrenville.
• 2026-05-18: May 18, 2026 Morning Storms and Paxton Tornado NOAA Storm Events lists wind reports on May 18, 2026 in Cook, Kane and Kankakee Counties, with a highest gust of 69 mph at Chicago Midway. A brief EF-0 tornado near Paxton, which NWS Chicago reports in Ford County, was outside our service counties.
• 2026-06-10: June 10, 2026 Northern Illinois Derecho NOAA Storm Events lists a highest gust of 70 mph in our counties on June 10, 2026, at Stickney in Cook County, among 121 reports across Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will Counties. Two EF-0 tornadoes are listed: one from Crestwood to Alsip in Cook County and one at Maple Park in Kane County. NWS Chicago classified the afternoon line as a derecho, which it defines as a long-lasting thunderstorm complex with damaging winds of at least 58 mph along most of its length, several well-separated gusts of 75 mph or more, and a length of at least 250 miles.
• 2026-06-11: June 11, 2026 Tornado Outbreak NOAA Storm Events lists a 74 mph gust at Oak Lawn and four tornado reports in our counties for June 11, 2026: an EF-2 from Willow Springs to Chicago Midway in Cook County, an EF-1 from Munger to Bartlett and an EF-0 from Naperville to Four Lakes in DuPage County, and one unrated tornado at Lee in DeKalb County. NWS Chicago's event summary counts 24 tornadoes in its area that day, the second-largest local outbreak on record behind July 15, 2024, which had 32. The strongest tornado of the outbreak, an EF-3 near Kouts, Indiana, was outside our service counties.
• 2026-06-24: June 24, 2026 Huntley Area Tornado and Hail Reports NOAA Storm Events lists 1.5 inch hail at Huntley, a 70 mph gust at Streamwood and an EF-0 tornado at Harmony in McHenry County for June 24, 2026, among 25 reports across Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane and McHenry Counties. A local storm report says the McHenry County EMA reported roof damage to a barn along Harmony Road near Brier Hill Road, and video shared to social media showed a likely tornado with lofted debris nearby.
• 2026-07-02: July 2, 2026 Evening Severe Storms NWS Chicago local storm reports for the evening of July 2, 2026 list 11 reports across Cook, DuPage and Kane Counties, with a highest gust of 66 mph at Elmhurst. In St. Charles, a report says a tree fell onto an elderly couple's home and firefighters rescued them uninjured. A radio tower in Aurora was reported collapsed in the wind.
• 2026-07-04: July 4, 2026 Severe Storms and Flooding NWS Chicago local storm reports for July 4, 2026 list 23 reports across Cook, DeKalb, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties, with a highest gust of 68 mph at Shorewood in Will County. Flash flooding was reported in Willowbrook, Woodridge, Burr Ridge and Aurora. Near Millbrook in Kendall County, a report says a tree fell onto a camper trailer off Millbrook Road in Fox Township and lists one fatality. Trees were reported down in Millbrook.
• 2026-07-27: July 27, 2026 Tornadoes, Hail and Wind NWS Chicago local storm reports for July 27, 2026 total 310 across Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake and Will Counties. The reports list hail up to 3 inches at Shorewood in Will County, a 104 mph gust near Goodenow in Will County and six tornadoes: EF-1s at Glenwood and Hazel Crest, EF-0s at Orland Park (Cook County), Downers Grove and Glen Ellyn (DuPage County) and Romeoville (Will County). NWS damage surveys in the reports put the Hazel Crest EF-1 at 110 mph peak winds on an 11.4 mile path through Country Club Hills, Hazel Crest and Homewood, and the Glenwood EF-1 at 110 mph with a peak width of 225 yards. In Lake County, a gust of 82 mph was measured at Beach Park, hangars were reported damaged at Waukegan Airport and a roof was reported blown off an apartment building on North Butrick Street.
• 2026-08-01: August 1, 2026 Flash Flooding NWS Chicago issued a Flash Flood Warning on August 1, 2026 (warning number 42 in the Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive). The storm record lists Cook, DuPage, Will and Kane Counties for the day, with Chicago, Hillside, Westchester, Berwyn and Oak Park among the places named.
• 2026-08-11: August 11, 2026 Derecho and Tornadoes NWS Chicago local storm reports for August 11, 2026 total 279 across Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties. The highest gust in those reports was 97 mph at Sugar Grove in Kane County. The reports list six tornadoes: an EF-2 at Frankfort in Will County, EF-1s at Homer Glen and Homewood in Cook County and at New Lenox and Wilmington in Will County, and an EF-0 at Oswego in Kendall County. The record lists no hail report of 1 inch or more for the day.
• 2026-08-14: August 14-15, 2026 Flooding The storm record for August 14 and 15, 2026 lists flooding in Cook, Will, DuPage and Kankakee Counties, with Thornton, Calumet City, Naperville, Homewood, Lansing, Tinley Park and Orland Park among the places named. Flood water and wind or hail damage to a roof are separate questions. Your policy sets its own terms for each; check your declarations page.
• 2026-09-17: September 17, 2026 Flash Flooding NWS Chicago local storm reports for September 17, 2026 list flooding in Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kendall, La Salle and Will Counties, including Bolingbrook and Homer Glen in Will County and Burr Ridge and Naperville in DuPage County. Rising water from flash flooding is a separate issue from wind or hail damage to a roof. Your policy sets its own terms for each; check your declarations page.
• 2026-10-16: October 16 Wind: 49 mph Gusts at O'Hare Northwest winds gusted to 49 mph at O'Hare at 4:53 p.m. on Friday, October 16, and to 42 mph at Midway. That's gale force, below the weather service's 58 mph severe mark, but gusts like these can lift shingles that have lost their seal and bring limbs down on roofs.

Limits of This Data

Three honest limits. First, counting days rather than individual reports understates severity: the August 11 row stands for hundreds of reports and six tornado reports. Second, storm reports come from spotters, public safety agencies and weather stations, so sparsely populated areas are systematically under-documented. Third, the towns named are the towns that appear in a report, not every town that took wind. Fourth, the most recent weeks are the least complete, because NOAA publishes its database months behind and preliminary reports get corrected.

All three limits push the same direction: this log undercounts. Treat it as a floor, not a ceiling.

Using and Citing This Report

Journalists, insurance professionals, and other contractors are welcome to cite these figures. Attribution: Chicago Storm Pros (C&N Construction), "The 2026 Chicagoland Storm Report," chicagostormpros.com. The underlying records power our storm map and are published as structured data.

We refresh this log monthly from NOAA and National Weather Service data. Last checked October 23, 2026. Some storm days get their own write-ups, most recently the August 11 derecho. If you're trying to work out whether your own roof took damage in any of these, that's what the free inspection is for, and the claim vs out-of-pocket guide covers what to do with the answer.