Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1963

F4 tornado, Kankakee, Newton, Jasper and Pulaski counties, Illinois and Indiana, April 17, 1963

This F4 tornado ran 57.3 miles across Kankakee, Newton, Jasper and Pulaski counties on April 17, 1963, touching down at 3:55 PM GMT-6 and reaching 130 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 70, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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 mph

    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 mphthis tornado

    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
F4
Date
April 17, 1963
Touchdown
3:55 PM GMT-6 (21:55 UTC)
Path length
57.3 miles (92.2 km)
Path width
130 yards (119 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
70
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
Counties
Kankakee, Newton, Jasper and Pulaski counties
Touchdown point
41.180, -88.100
Lift-off point
41.080, -86.870
Record number
76

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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), 12:00Z

9.9 hours before the tornado, 185 km from the path. April 17, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1963-04-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 176 joules per kilogram, CIN -228, lifted condensation level 799 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 12:00Z on 1963-04-17The 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 308 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 74 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
176 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-228 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
799 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
74 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
308 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
338 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.1 hours after it, 185 km from the path. April 18, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1963-04-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1186 joules per kilogram, CIN -84, lifted condensation level 1149 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 1963-04-18The 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 19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
1186 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1987 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1149 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
224 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
8.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1963 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 17, 1963

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 175:50 PM GMT-5F2Wabash, IN13.010$50,000 to $500,000
April 175:45 PM GMT-6F0Shelby, MO0.210$500 to $5,000
April 176:45 PM GMT-5F2Huntington, IN11.110$50,000 to $500,000
April 177:13 PM GMT-5F1Branch, MI1.0101$5,000 to $50,000
April 177:20 PM GMT-5F3Monroe, MI0.5671$50,000 to $500,000

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.