Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1979

F0 tornado, Livingston County, Illinois, August 19, 1979

This F0 tornado ran 12.5 miles across Livingston County on August 19, 1979, touching down at 4:45 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
August 19, 1979
Touchdown
4:45 PM CDT (21:45 UTC)
Path length
12.5 miles (20.1 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Livingston County
Touchdown point
41.080, -88.430
Lift-off point
40.900, -88.400
Record number
656

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

9.8 hours before the tornado, 106 km from the path. August 19, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1979-08-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 698 joules per kilogram, CIN -106, lifted condensation level 859 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 1979-08-19The 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 85 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.1939Sfc1 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
698 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-106 J/kg
Surface CAPE
61 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
859 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.2 hours after it, 106 km from the path. August 20, 1979.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1979-08-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3000 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 1090 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 1979-08-20The 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 86 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.1939Sfc1 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
3000 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4826 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1090 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.3
Supercell composite
10.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1979 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 19, 1979

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 1911:00 AM MDTF1Grant, NM0.110$50,000 to $500,000
August 193:00 PM CDTF0Cleveland, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
August 195:30 PM CDTF0Osceola, IA0.230$500 to $5,000
August 197:32 PM CDTF1Hamilton, IA4.7100$5,000 to $50,000
August 196:00 PM PDTF1Elko, NV0.110$50,000 to $500,000
August 199:32 PM CDTF0Jasper, IA0.130
August 1911:30 PM CDTF1Mahaska, IA0.260$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.