Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1961

F1 tornado, Sangamon County, Illinois, May 14, 1961

This F1 tornado ran 4.9 miles across Sangamon County on May 14, 1961, touching down at 11:10 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
May 14, 1961
Touchdown
11:10 PM GMT-5 (04:10 UTC)
Path length
4.9 miles (7.9 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Sangamon County
Touchdown point
39.720, -89.920
Lift-off point
39.770, -89.850
Record number
319

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Peoria Regional, IL (KPIA), 00:00Z

4.2 hours before the tornado, 106 km from the path. May 15, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1961-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 894 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 792 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1961-05-15The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 214 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
894 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1708 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
792 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
211 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.3
Supercell composite
7.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Peoria Regional, IL (KPIA), 12:00Z

7.8 hours after it, 106 km from the path. May 15, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1961-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -13740, lifted condensation level 789 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1961-05-15The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 45 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13740 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
789 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Springfield (SPI), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
03:00 UTC7065180° 23 kt1002
04:00 UTC7065180° 15 kt1001.7
05:00 UTC6159225° 6 kt1002.4
06:00 UTC6358225° 12 kt1001.7

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1961 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 14, 1961

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 1412:30 PM GMT-5F1Buchanan, IA7.21502$5,000 to $50,000
May 141:45 PM GMT-5F1Bon Homme, SD0.360$500 to $5,000
May 142:50 PM GMT-5F2La Crosse, WI1.033$5,000 to $50,000
May 143:00 PM GMT-5F2Bienville Parish, LA6.1283$5,000 to $50,000
May 143:00 PM GMT-5F1Randolph, AR0.1100$500 to $5,000
May 145:20 PM GMT-5F2Arkansas, AR5.9417$5,000 to $50,000
May 146:00 PM GMT-5F3Adams, IL127.11008$500,000 to $5 million
May 146:10 PM GMT-5F1Bremer, IA0.1100$5,000 to $50,000
May 146:16 PM GMT-5F2Waseca, MN5.18801$50,000 to $500,000
May 149:15 PM GMT-5F0Woodford, IL22.910$50 to $500

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.