Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1974

F2 tornado, Champaign County, Illinois, April 12, 1974

This F2 tornado ran 12.5 miles across Champaign County on April 12, 1974, touching down at 9:05 PM CDT and reaching 20 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 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
April 12, 1974
Touchdown
9:05 PM CDT (02:05 UTC)
Path length
12.5 miles (20.1 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Champaign County
Touchdown point
40.100, -88.100
Lift-off point
40.270, -88.000
Record number
275

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

2.1 hours before the tornado, 142 km from the path. April 13, 1974.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1974-04-13Temperature 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 -11877, lifted condensation level 1826 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 1974-04-13The 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 126 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
-11877 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1826 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
320 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.9 hours after it, 142 km from the path. April 13, 1974.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1974-04-13Temperature 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 -13597, lifted condensation level 1145 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 1974-04-13The 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 152 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
-13597 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1145 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
152 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
221 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1974 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 12, 1974

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 122:45 AM CDTF1Rapides Parish, LA5.61503$5,000 to $50,000
April 123:30 AM CDTF2Grenada, MS0.110$5,000 to $50,000
April 123:05 PM CDTF2Marathon, WI0.1150$5,000 to $50,000
April 123:15 PM CDTF2Shawano, WI10.71501$50,000 to $500,000
April 128:55 PM EDTF2Ogemaw, MI0.8100$500 to $5,000
April 129:20 PM EDTF1Kalamazoo, MI0.210$50 to $500
April 129:28 PM ESTF1Saint Joseph, IN0.110
April 1210:05 PM CDTF0Tangipahoa Parish, LA0.110
April 1210:30 PM CDTF0Assumption Parish, LA4.5172$5,000 to $50,000

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.