Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1976

F3 tornado, Kankakee, Newton and Jasper counties, Illinois and Indiana, March 12, 1976

This F3 tornado ran 38.5 miles across Kankakee, Newton and Jasper counties on March 12, 1976, touching down at 1:35 PM CST and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 15, 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
March 12, 1976
Touchdown
1:35 PM CST (19:35 UTC)
Path length
38.5 miles (61.9 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
15
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Kankakee, Newton and Jasper counties
Touchdown point
41.000, -87.700
Lift-off point
41.250, -87.030
Record number
73

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

7.6 hours before the tornado, 195 km from the path. March 12, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1976-03-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -127, lifted condensation level 645 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 1976-03-12The 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 483 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-127 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
645 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
483 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
502 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.4 hours after it, 195 km from the path. March 13, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1976-03-13Temperature 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 -20976, lifted condensation level 575 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 1976-03-13The 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 150 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20976 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
575 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
150 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
151 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Chicago (MDW), 80 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:00 UTC5850180° 20 kt29997
19:00 UTC5951180° 25 kt28993.9
19:02 UTC180° 25 kt28993.2
20:00 UTC5851240° 26 kt37993.2
21:00 UTC5143240° 22 kt37994.9

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1976 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 12, 1976

26 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 1212:50 PM CSTF3Kendall, IL22.6303$500,000 to $5 million
March 121:20 PM CSTF2DuPage, IL15.1150266$500,000 to $5 million
March 122:00 PM CSTF2Lake, IN5.6200$500 to $5,000
March 122:00 PM CSTF3Porter, IN12.62007$50,000 to $500,000
March 123:20 PM ESTF0Benton, IN3.827$50 to $500
March 123:25 PM ESTF1Tippecanoe, IN5.2100
March 123:30 PM ESTF2Berrien, MI10.183$5,000 to $50,000
March 122:35 PM CSTF1Newton, IN17.380$5,000 to $50,000
March 123:00 PM CSTF3Starke, IN12.1404$5,000 to $50,000
March 124:15 PM ESTF1Marshall, IN4.130$5,000 to $50,000
March 124:19 PM ESTF1Ottawa, MI12.0831$50,000 to $500,000
March 124:25 PM ESTF0Montgomery, IN8.540$5,000 to $50,000
March 123:30 PM CSTF2LaGrange, IN to MI13.41278$5,000 to $50,000
March 124:35 PM ESTF2LaGrange, IN9.31009$50,000 to $500,000
March 124:50 PM ESTF1Kalamazoo, MI2.567$5,000 to $50,000
March 124:50 PM ESTF1Allen, IN0.1171$5,000 to $50,000
March 125:05 PM ESTF2Hillsdale, MI0.183$50,000 to $500,000
March 125:40 PM ESTF2Hillsdale, MI3.6133$50,000 to $500,000
March 125:40 PM ESTF1Wayne, IN10.9127$50,000 to $500,000
March 124:50 PM CSTF1Sumter, AL1.01502$5,000 to $50,000
March 125:50 PM ESTF2Jackson, MI2.090$50,000 to $500,000
March 128:27 PM CSTF2Marengo, AL18.42001$50,000 to $500,000
March 128:30 PM CSTF3Autauga, AL16.51004$500,000 to $5 million
March 129:20 PM CSTF3Elmore, AL4.940015$500,000 to $5 million
March 1210:30 PM CSTF1Dallas, AL0.2501$50,000 to $500,000
March 1210:50 PM CSTF2Chilton, AL0.150$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.