Alert archive / Illinois / Severe Thunderstorm Watches / 2026
Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Illinois, May 2026
4 severe thunderstorm watches in May 2026. An alert counts here when it covered any part of the state, so the counties below add up to more than the state. The archive of severe thunderstorm watches reaches back to 1997.
Severe Thunderstorm Watches by county
Each county as a circle sized by its count in May 2026. Tap one for its archive.
- Severe Thunderstorm Watches
- 4
- Busiest day
- May 16, 20262 severe thunderstorm watches
Over time
By day
Days in UTC, the clock the archive keeps.
The alerts
Every alert, in the order issued. Times are local, Central Time. Each opens its own page with the text, the map, the radar and the sounding.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 15, 10:33 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Boone, Carroll, Jo Daviess, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson and 1 more | 4 hr |
| May 16, 3:46 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Bond, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Cumberland and 15 more | 4 hr |
| May 18, 10:02 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Champaign, Clark, Clay, Coles, Cook, Crawford and 19 more | 7 hr |
| May 31, 3:02 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Alexander, Pulaski | 3 hr |
By county
Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.
- Clark County2
- Clay County2
- Crawford County2
- Cumberland County2
- Effingham County2
- Jasper County2
- Lawrence County2
- Richland County2
- Boone County1
- Carroll County1
- Jo Daviess County1
- McHenry County1
- Ogle County1
- Stephenson County1
- Winnebago County1
- Bond County1
- Clinton County1
- Edwards County1
- Fayette County1
- Franklin County1
- Hamilton County1
- Jefferson County1
- Marion County1
- Perry County1
- Wabash County1
- Washington County1
- Wayne County1
- White County1
- Champaign County1
- Coles County1
- Cook County1
- Douglas County1
- DuPage County1
- Edgar County1
- Ford County1
- Grundy County1
- Iroquois County1
- Kankakee County1
- Kendall County1
- Livingston County1
Nearby
Sources
National Weather Service watches, warnings, advisories and statements from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's VTEC archive, which reconstructs tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood and marine warnings back to 1986 from the NWS text archive. Storm Prediction Center watches and mesoscale discussions from SPC's archive through the Mesonet. County centers from the US Census Bureau. Warning verification from the Mesonet's Cow. Rebuilt daily.