On August 23, I headed into the Badlands knowing this could very well be my last chase of the season. The forecast wasn’t screaming tornadoes. In fact, there wasn’t much reason for optimism on paper. But if you’ve spent enough time in western North Dakota, you learn that sometimes the atmosphere has plans of its own.

What followed was one of the most unforgettable evenings I’ve ever witnessed. #Tornadoes that began as a rain-wrapped cone, and then… a sunset-lit elephant trunk tornado emerging from the rain in the final moments of daylight.

This episode isn’t just about the tornado. It’s about uncertainty, persistence, and why I keep coming back despite everything this season has thrown at me. If this is my last for 2026, I am happy.

I got frustrated that there wasn't a decent free hail visualization tool online... everything I found was either paywalled contractor software or just a table of raw storm reports with no map.

So I built one. It layers two data sources on an interactive map:

- NWS Local Storm Reports: confirmed hail events, color-coded by size

- NOAA radar-derived swath estimates: shows the maximum hail size that fell across a geographic area over your selected timeframe, not just point reports

You can toggle each layer independently, search by zip code or city, set a radius in miles, and choose either a relative timeframe (e.g. past 2 weeks) or a specific date range.

The swath layer is the part I find most useful. confirmed reports only show you where someone physically observed hail, but the radar swaths give a more complete picture.

Built it primarily for Carolina homeowners checking for roof damage after storms, but it pulls national data so it works anywhere, for any state in the US.

https://carolinahomeservice.com/hail-tracker/

Open to feedback. Curious what this community would want to see added or improved.

I spent the last 72 hours chasing and filming tornadoes across Nebraska, and after staying up all night editing, then letting it render literally all day in the passenger seat of my Subaru while chasing and filming even more 5/18/26 in Kansas…, I finally got the upload finished. It’s in 8K format, and will premiere tomorrow May 19, 2026.

I’m utterly exhausted. At the time of this writing it’s 4:30am and I’m just getting home in Fargo, ND. If you have the time, check out tonight’s documentary release: “The Nebraska Monster.”

PDS Tornado Warning for Floyd and Motley Counties in Texas, expires at 7:45pm CT . Ryan Hall Y'all on others are live now with footage of the tornado. Numerous storm chasers are on the scene as well. It is currently near Freedom, TX moving Southeast with confirmed 5 inch hail (that's DVD size).