The opening of the 2026 severe weather season has been one of the most active starts to a season in recent memory. The Tuesday outbreak broke many hail records and put down a monsterous wedge tornado in northern Illinois/Indiana, bringing a path of destruction which spanned from the city of Kankakee, Illinois, to Indian Hills, Indiana. The tornado lifted and lowered around a total of four times, and travelled around a total distance of 68 miles.

Hail broke a state-wide size record in Illinois, with monster hail up to 5". The hailstorm which was produced will be studied for a long time. It broke many records, and a massive amount of spotters were in the area to take ground truth and document the situation, giving us a ton of data to comb through and analyze in the coming days, weeks, months, and even years and decades. 

The severe weather threat is almost over, but it still has another day. Today, a large amount of states will be facing a Slight Risk of severe weather. States listed: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas. Today's threat includes damaging winds, large hail, and maybe a few isolated tornadoes. Though the threat today will not be as intense as yesterday's outbreak, we still need to take it very seriously. Once today is over with, we can finally start to relax again and not worry about weather for a bit, potentially.

You can watch our Wednesday coverage stream HERE at 3PM ET. Don't be scared, be prepared!

Check out NOAA Weather Radios from our new sponsor myGMRS.com!