Chicago got hit with the real thing on August 11. The National Weather Service put a tornado warning over the city that ran until 11:15 a.m., with storms capable of destructive winds over 75 mph and gusts reported between 80 and 90 mph at personal weather stations around the area. One possible tornado near Flossmoor was clocked at over 120 mph. Sirens went off, basements filled up, and the Barstool Chicago crew ended up right in the middle of it.
That's what made it so wild that planes were still touching down at O'Hare while the warning was active. Zah caught it in real time and could not believe what he was watching out the window.
It tracks with how the day actually played out at the airport. Ground stops hit both O'Hare and Midway for several hours as the line of storms moved through, with roughly 250 flights canceled and delays stacking up around an hour — but by the time the worst of the cell was rolling over the city, arrivals were apparently still finding a way in. Not exactly comforting if you're the one strapped into seat 14C watching the wing shake.
Meanwhile the Barstool Chicago guys were out in it, filming through the wind instead of hiding from it. Blutman went full storm chaser, doing a live walk-and-talk report in the middle of the watch.
Blutman reporting live on Tornado Watch! https://t.co/HqcBtMf1RZ
None of this is a one-off for Illinois this year. The state has already logged around 220 tornadoes through late July, blowing past its previous single-year record of 142 set back in 2024 and running about 4x the historical average. So when Nicky Smokes says Chicago tornado warnings are basically South Florida hurricane warnings — you brace for them constantly and most of the time nothing happens, until suddenly it very much does — he's not wrong, and this year has been proving it on repeat.
Today. I learned that tornado’s of Chicago are like hurricanes for South Florida. They never actually come until they do.
Barstool Chicago's own account summed up the mood best, framing a shelf cloud rolling over the skyline as just another Tuesday for the city.
Average day of weather in Chicago this summer https://t.co/Vfvtwb3m6d
The warning eventually lifted and the sirens went quiet, but with Illinois already sitting on a record-shattering tornado year, this almost certainly won't be the last time the Barstool Chicago crew is filming through a windshield instead of watching from inside.