Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1965

F1 tornado, Ford County, Illinois, November 26, 1965

This F1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Ford County on November 26, 1965, touching down at 6:17 PM GMT-6 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
November 26, 1965
Touchdown
6:17 PM GMT-6 (00:17 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Ford County
Touchdown point
40.450, -88.100
Record number
874

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

0.3 hours before the tornado, 129 km from the path. November 27, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1965-11-27Temperature 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 -11281, lifted condensation level 743 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 00:00Z on 1965-11-27The 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 -134 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 94 knots.1939587897117136156Sfc1 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
-11281 J/kg
Surface CAPE
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
743 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
94 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-134 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-164 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.7 hours after it, 129 km from the path. November 27, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1965-11-27Temperature 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 -22867, lifted condensation level 987 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 1965-11-27The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 93 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
-22867 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
987 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
93 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
38 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

Rantoul (TIP), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:00 UTC64.458.3200° 21 ktSHRA HZ
00:00 UTC64.459.4200° 24 ktSHRA
01:00 UTC58.353.4250° 15 kt
02:00 UTC53.448.4250° 22 kt

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1965 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 26, 1965

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 267:10 PM GMT-6F2Richland, IL0.5205$5,000 to $50,000
November 267:30 PM GMT-6F3Greene, AR3.6880$50,000 to $500,000
November 269:00 PM GMT-5F2Boone, IN4.710$50,000 to $500,000
November 269:00 PM GMT-5F3Boone, IN14.75275$50,000 to $500,000
November 268:30 PM GMT-6F1Clay, AR0.110$500 to $5,000
November 269:46 PM GMT-5F3Saint Joseph, IN1.070$50,000 to $500,000
November 2610:00 PM GMT-5F3Hancock, IN1.02003$50,000 to $500,000
November 2610:00 PM GMT-5F3Delaware, IN0.510$50,000 to $500,000
November 2610:20 PM GMT-5F3Decatur, IN1.910$50,000 to $500,000
November 2611:10 PM GMT-5F1Mercer, OH4.32001$5,000 to $50,000
November 2611:00 PM GMT-6F2Metcalfe, KY5.41011
November 2612:05 AM GMT-5F2Anderson, KY2.7108$500,000 to $5 million
November 2612:45 AM GMT-5F1Lewis, KY9.6102$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.