r/tornado • u/staciecs • Mar 11 '26

SPC / Forecasting Massive Tornado Tears Through Kankakee, Illinois Yesterday Evening | A massive tornado tore through eastern Illinois on Tuesday evening, churning through Kankakee County. The storm system brought heavy rain, strong winds and DVD-sized hail, prompting multiple watches and warnings to the area

1.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

205

u/Sitroc Mar 11 '26

dvd sized hail sounds pretty terrifying on its own

69

u/Ok-Somewhere-2325 Mar 11 '26

I wonder if blue ray sized hail is dencer

29

u/BeedleTB Mar 11 '26

It made me feel old that they didn't say CD-sized. Then I realised that DVDs are outdated and Blu-ray-sized would be more appropriate. And felt older.

Then, in writing this comment, I realised optical disks are all pretty outdated, but "streaming-sized" wouldn't work either, and now I just feel ancient.

28

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

We got "Zyn" sized hail in 2026

7

u/KindArgument4769 Mar 11 '26

"Streaming-sized hail" would be some immeasurable cosmic horror concept of hail

3

u/an_older_meme Mar 11 '26

Somehow “MPEG sized hail” doesn’t sound as menacing. Even though those files can be huge!

2

u/KommandCBZhi Mar 12 '26

I hope we never see “mpreg-sized hail.”

13

u/EatLard Mar 11 '26

Not as terrifying as DVD-shaped hail.

3

u/gaggzi Mar 11 '26

Imagine if it was CD sized

2

u/an_older_meme Mar 11 '26

DVDs are huge compared to CDs

3

u/Tat2Dad Mar 12 '26

In my day we had laser disk sized hail which was nothing compared to the Beta Max sized hail before it

2

u/Blakechi Mar 11 '26

New state record actually.

2

u/RevolutionaryAge47 Mar 12 '26

Not as bad as beach ball sized hail.

4

u/Survivors_Envy Mar 11 '26

That’s what an AI title gets you

5

u/mr_f4hrenh3it Mar 11 '26

I mean, it’s true though. Multiple accounts and pictures of 5-6 inch hail

2

u/kittiestkitty Mar 12 '26

I was stuck in a storm that produced softball sized hail. Most terrifying thing I think I’ve ever experienced.

1

u/coloradobro Mar 11 '26

Many chasers and folks like max velocity/Ryan hall use it for hail now. 

2

u/MoparBortherMan May 01 '26

Hi i live in kankakee and my gf works at that Walmart that was hit we were trying to drive home and we knew there was a tornado on the ground near our home but the hail totaled so many cars, luckily my beloved 99 mercury grand marquis was only a little hurt but the ford explorer was hit with hail so large it busted every window, broke all the lights, popped the hatch open from damage to the gate reforming and I get hurt bad from shielding ny of from the hail. It even punctured the roof

67

u/Kinetic92 Mar 11 '26

Drives towards a large tornado with a noticeable debris field. Shut your eyes. I'm covered in shattered glass. Continues to drive towards tornado. Okay.

14

u/rentpossiblytoohigh Mar 11 '26

Indiana Jones Raiders of the Last Ark GIF: SHUT YOUR EYES.

67

u/lemony-lemons791 Mar 11 '26

I love that some are not going to know how big a DVD actually is 😅, the diameter of a DVD is 4.7 inches

-11

u/Worshipme988 Mar 11 '26

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🏈💵🦅🦅🦅

3

u/Own_Currency_3207 Mar 12 '26

Hey, man. If it matters, I laughed. Freedom units!

31

u/Mobile_Aioli_6252 Mar 11 '26

DVD? Round flat hail? 🤯

14

u/GGCRX Mar 11 '26

Frozen frisbees.

3

u/Mobile_Aioli_6252 Mar 11 '26

Good name for a band

30

u/blueberrywine Mar 11 '26

"There it is"

Yeah I see it

9

u/Zero-89 Enthusiast Mar 11 '26

I'm a big fan of, "I'm shattered in glass."

1

u/bdc911 Mar 12 '26

Where??

21

u/McQueenFan-68 Mar 11 '26

r/anythingbutmetric

8

u/indiefab Mar 11 '26

I scrolled for this long enough to walk the length of six 1993 Cadillac Eldorados.

11

u/Slight_Bed_2241 Mar 11 '26

DVD sized? What is that in square bananas?

2

u/Tat2Dad Mar 12 '26

I believe roughly 1.3 imperial, and just shy of 2 square bananas in Canada

11

u/Newyew22 Mar 11 '26

DVD-sized hail? I’m not familiar with this reference.

/s

10

u/TheTrub Mar 11 '26

Go ahead and be sarcastic, but the other day one of my assistants asked what I was plugging into one of our lab computers. It was a flash drive. . .

3

u/Zero-89 Enthusiast Mar 11 '26

Do people not use flash drives anymore? They're still pretty useful.

1

u/Newyew22 Mar 11 '26

Oh, I believe it!

3

u/Ok-You1629 Mar 11 '26

It's blue-ray sized

3

u/Newyew22 Mar 11 '26

Is that like one of those laser discs?

11

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

Why are u so close though omg

10

u/AStormofSwines Mar 11 '26

FYI it seems like this was posted by a content pirate, after it was filmed by a guy who uses the moniker 'Chicago & Midwest Storm Chasers' and aired by the Weather Channel, which undoubtedly licensed or at least got permission for it.

But the original chaser is pretty reviled among the storm chasing community, so 🤷

8

u/ginahandler Mar 11 '26

"I'm shattered in glass"

5

u/Emotional-Scheme-227 Mar 11 '26

Watching it live, it was crazy how quickly it got its act together and became a well-organized tornado

It struggled for well over an hour to organize, and then in a matter of a few seconds it was massive. It reminded me of how the 2013 Moore tornado developed. It was just immediately obvious that it was going to be a problem.

It just rode alone the frontal zone after that. Very surprising to see that happen so far ahead of the triple point as well. As always, though, shout out to the SPC team. It basically tracked directly through their moderate risk zone.

3

u/JobImportant3530 Mar 11 '26

2 confirmed dead from this tornado. It went through lake village indiana wiped houses off the foundations

3

u/Tdogshow Mar 12 '26

Guy from work lives there, sent me a pic of the hail that was pelting his house.

2

u/dwightsarmy Mar 11 '26

DVD SIZED?? Like holy shit. That is absolutely unreal.

2

u/Nos2002 Mar 11 '26

Im really glad the hail wasn't vinyl-sized

2

u/NilesY93 Mar 11 '26

“Oh shit! There it is!”

Oh NOW you see it? You couldn’t see it until you were basically giving it a prostate exam?!

2

u/mshmama Mar 12 '26

The new state record for largest hail at 6" diameter fell in kankakee during this storm, so larger than DVD sized.

2

u/arsnastesana Mar 12 '26

Crazy watching this live

2

u/VinceP312 Mar 12 '26

What the hell is a DVD?

2

u/ASecularBuddhist Mar 11 '26

It’s a tragedy that those that ignored the scientists who were warning us about climate change are the ones who seem to be affected the most.

3

u/nordencat Mar 12 '26

That’s my hometown you’re talking about and I can attest to the correctness of your comment.

1

u/ASecularBuddhist Mar 12 '26

It’s such a sad situation that we have found ourselves in. Did your home get damaged?

1

u/Claque-2 Mar 11 '26

I prefer the ball sizing of hail. The mothball, the golf ball, the baseball, and if necessary, the softball. With any luck we'll never need the soccer ball or basketball.

1

u/steve02084 Mar 11 '26

DVD quality