Hail in Chicago on Thursday, April 20, 2023
The Storm Prediction Center logged 14 hail reports in Chicago on Thursday, April 20, 2023, between 5:50 pm and 6:42 pm CDT, in 4 of the metro's 7 counties. The largest was 1.75 inches at 1 NW Hoffman Estates (Cook County) at 5:55 pm.
NOAA's radar hail archive holds no records at all for April 20, 2023 (UTC), anywhere in the country, so radar figures for this date are incomplete. That is a gap in NOAA's processing, not a sign that radar saw no hail.
Where hail was reported
Reports came from 11 places in Cook, DuPage, Kane and Lake counties, named as the National Weather Service described them.
- Elgin 2 reports, up to 1.25 in
- Glenview 2 reports, up to 1.50 in
- Kildeer 2 reports, up to 1.00 in
- Barrington 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Hoffman Estates 1 report, up to 1.75 in
- Long Grove 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Medinah 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Palatine 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Schaumburg 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Streamwood 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Winnetka 1 report, up to 1.00 in
Every hail report logged that day
Times are Central Daylight Time. Sizes are in inches, as reported. The comment is the National Weather Service's text as published in the Storm Prediction Center's daily log.
| Time | Size | Place | County | NWS comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5:50 pm | 1.00 | Elgin | Kane | PHOTO SHARED TO SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWS QUARTER SIZED HAIL NEAR ELGIN. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. (LOT) |
| 5:55 pm | 1.75 | 1 NW Hoffman Estates | Cook | GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL NEAR HOFFMAN ESTATES. (LOT) |
| 6:03 pm | 1.00 | 1 NE Streamwood | Cook | RELAYED VIA MPING. (LOT) |
| 6:04 pm | 1.25 | 2 NE Elgin | Cook | RELAYED VIA MPING. (LOT) |
| 6:05 pm | 1.25 | 1 E Schaumburg | Cook | HAIL UP TO HALF DOLLAR SIZED IN SCHAUMBURG. (LOT) |
| 6:07 pm | 1.00 | 1 SSE Kildeer | Cook | QUARTER SIZED HAIL NEAR RAND ROAD AND LAKE COOK ROAD. (LOT) |
| 6:07 pm | 1.00 | 1 WSW Kildeer | Lake | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTS QUARTER SIZED HAIL NEAR QUENTIN ROAD AND US12. (LOT) |
| 6:09 pm | 1.00 | 1 SSW Long Grove | Lake | RELAYED VIA MPING. (LOT) |
| 6:10 pm | 1.00 | 1 NE Palatine | Cook | NWS EMPLOYEE REPORTS QUARTER SIZED HAIL IN PALATINE. (LOT) |
| 6:17 pm | 1.00 | Barrington | Cook | REPORT SHARED TO SOCIAL MEDIA OF QUARTER SIZED HAIL NEAR BARRINGTON. (LOT) |
| 6:19 pm | 1.00 | 1 NNE Medinah | DuPage | TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. (LOT) |
| 6:36 pm | 1.50 | Glenview | Cook | PHOTO SHARED TO SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWS HAIL ABOUT WALNUT SIZED. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. (LOT) |
| 6:39 pm | 1.00 | 1 SW Glenview | Cook | RELAYED VIA MPING. (LOT) |
| 6:42 pm | 1.00 | 1 NNW Winnetka | Cook | RELAYED VIA MPING. (LOT) |
What NEXRAD radar recorded inside the metro
NOAA's radar hail archive holds no records at all for April 20, 2023 (UTC), anywhere in the country, so radar figures for this date are incomplete. That is a gap in NOAA's processing, not a sign that radar saw no hail. The 80 signatures NOAA does hold for this local day are counted below.
| Radar | Signatures | Rated 100% | 1 in or more | 2 in or more | Largest expected | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KORD | 26 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.00 in | 7:02 pm | 7:32 pm |
| KMDW | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.75 in | 7:04 pm | 7:31 pm |
| KLOT | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.75 in | 7:03 pm | 7:31 pm |
| KIWX | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.50 in | 7:00 pm | 7:32 pm |
| KILX | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.50 in | 7:02 pm | 7:33 pm |
| KMKX | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.50 in | 7:03 pm | 7:30 pm |
| KGRR | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.50 in | 7:02 pm | 7:08 pm |
| KIND | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.50 in | 7:15 pm | 7:31 pm |
Each radar that scans a storm writes its own signature about every 4 to 6 minutes, so one storm produces many rows and overlapping radars count it more than once. The raw rows for this day are in NOAA's Severe Weather Data Inventory.
Check an address for April 20, 2023
See, free, how many hail signatures NOAA recorded within 1, 3 and 5 miles of one address that day and the nearest spotter report. The full report is $19.
Spotter reports come from the Storm Prediction Center's preliminary daily logs, grouped here by local calendar date (Central Daylight Time) and by county: a report counts for Chicago when its coordinates fall inside one of the metro's 7 counties (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will and Kendall counties). Radar signatures are estimates from the Hail Detection Algorithm, not measured stones; they include every cell it rated, from a 10% to a 100% probability of hail. How these pages are built.