Hail in Chicago on Thursday, May 15, 2025
The Storm Prediction Center logged 16 hail reports in Chicago on Thursday, May 15, 2025, between 6:40 pm and 8:03 pm CDT, in 3 of the metro's 7 counties. The largest was 2.00 inches at Winthrop Harbor (Lake County) at 6:54 pm. NOAA radar flagged 523 hail signatures inside the metro that day: 204 rated a 100% chance of hail and 148 with a maximum expected size of 1 inch or more.
Where hail was reported
Reports came from 13 places in Cook, DuPage and Lake counties, named as the National Weather Service described them.
- Elmhurst 2 reports, up to 1.50 in
- Waukegan 2 reports, up to 1.75 in
- Winthrop Harbor 2 reports, up to 2.00 in
- Franklin Park 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Glen Ellyn 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Gurnee 1 report, up to 2.00 in
- Homer Glen 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Lombard 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Park City 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Uptown - Chicago 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Villa Park 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Wheaton 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Zion 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6:40 pm | 1.00 | 1 WNW Park City | Lake | Trained spotter reported quarter size hail on the south side of Gurnee. Time estimated by radar. (LOT) |
| 6:41 pm | 1.75 | 1 W Waukegan | Lake | (LOT) |
| 6:42 pm | 2.00 | Gurnee | Lake | Trained spotter reported 2 inch hail on the west side of Gurnee. (LOT) |
| 6:44 pm | 1.00 | 1 NE Waukegan | Lake | Public report of quarter size hail in northern Waukegan. (LOT) |
| 6:50 pm | 1.00 | 2 WNW Zion | Lake | Public report of quarter size hail on the west side of Zion. Time estimated by radar. (LOT) |
| 6:54 pm | 2.00 | Winthrop Harbor | Lake | Multiple public reports of hail up to 2 inches in diameter in Winthrop Harbor. (LOT) |
| 6:55 pm | 1.75 | Winthrop Harbor | Lake | Public report of golf ball size hail near Winthrop Harbor. Relayed via mping. (LOT) |
| 7:30 pm | 1.00 | 1 S Glen Ellyn | DuPage | Photo on social media of hail stone reported in Glen Ellyn next to ruler. Time estimated by users post. (LOT) |
| 7:34 pm | 1.00 | 1 S Lombard | DuPage | Time estimated from radar. (LOT) |
| 7:37 pm | 1.00 | 1 S Villa Park | DuPage | Public report of quarter size hail in Villa Park. Relayed via mping. (LOT) |
| 7:37 pm | 1.25 | Elmhurst | DuPage | Public report of half dollar hail in Elmhurst. Relayed via mping. (LOT) |
| 7:38 pm | 1.50 | Elmhurst | DuPage | Time estimated from radar. (LOT) |
| 7:40 pm | 1.25 | 1 E Franklin Park | Cook | Trained spotter reports hail up to half dollar size near Franklin Park. (LOT) |
| 7:59 pm | 1.25 | 2 E Homer Glen | Cook | Public report of half dollar size hail near Homer Glen. Relayed via mping. (LOT) |
| 8:00 pm | 1.00 | Wheaton | DuPage | Via social media... user posted an image of a hail stone next to a ruler measuring 1 inch. (LOT) |
| 8:03 pm | 1.00 | 1 W Uptown - Chicago | Cook | Public report of quarter size hail in Uptown area of Chicago. Relayed via mping. (LOT) |
What NEXRAD radar recorded inside the metro
523 signatures from 11 radars fell inside the metro's counties on this local date, counting every cell the algorithm rated from a 10% to a 100% chance of hail; 204 were rated 100% and 10 had a maximum expected size of 2 inches or more.
| Radar | Signatures | Rated 100% | 1 in or more | 2 in or more | Largest expected | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KORD | 122 | 17 | 13 | 0 | 1.50 in | 6:02 pm | 8:26 pm |
| KDVN | 70 | 27 | 20 | 1 | 2.00 in | 6:06 pm | 8:08 pm |
| KMKX | 68 | 38 | 25 | 2 | 2.00 in | 5:22 pm | 8:24 pm |
| KLOT | 68 | 27 | 25 | 3 | 2.25 in | 6:04 pm | 8:37 pm |
| KIWX | 63 | 40 | 30 | 2 | 2.00 in | 6:34 pm | 8:28 pm |
| KMKE | 53 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 1.50 in | 5:26 pm | 7:35 pm |
| KILX | 37 | 22 | 16 | 0 | 1.75 in | 6:03 pm | 8:39 pm |
| KGRR | 24 | 19 | 10 | 0 | 1.75 in | 6:16 pm | 8:23 pm |
| KMDW | 10 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1.25 in | 7:02 pm | 8:26 pm |
| KGRB | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2.25 in | 6:41 pm | 7:28 pm |
| KIND | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.50 in | 8:18 pm | 8:21 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 May 15, 2025
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.