Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1985

F2 tornado, Randolph County, Illinois, April 5, 1985

This F2 tornado ran 1.8 miles across Randolph County on April 5, 1985, touching down at 4:58 AM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 3, 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 5, 1985
Touchdown
4:58 AM CST (10:58 UTC)
Path length
1.8 miles (2.9 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
3
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Randolph County
Touchdown point
38.220, -89.700
Record number
50

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.

Salem-Leckrone, IL (KSLO), 00:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 85 km from the path. April 5, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem-Leckrone, IL at 00:00Z on 1985-04-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 435 joules per kilogram, CIN -189, lifted condensation level 1395 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, Salem-Leckrone, IL at 00:00Z on 1985-04-05The 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 313 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
435 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-189 J/kg
Surface CAPE
695 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1395 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
313 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
313 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Salem-Leckrone, IL (KSLO), 12:00Z

1.0 hours after it, 85 km from the path. April 5, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem-Leckrone, IL at 12:00Z on 1985-04-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 101 joules per kilogram, CIN -24, lifted condensation level 689 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, Salem-Leckrone, IL at 12:00Z on 1985-04-05The 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 177 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
101 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-24 J/kg
Surface CAPE
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
689 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
177 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
173 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Belleville - Scott AFB (BLV), 39 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
09:00 UTC5249360° 7 kt996.3
10:00 UTC504760° 6 kt995.6
11:00 UTC4643110° 20 kt32998.6
12:00 UTC4440360° 15 kt22994.6

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1985 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 5, 1985

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 54:55 AM CSTF1Randolph, IL0.5100$500,000 to $5 million
April 511:05 AM CSTF1Union Parish, LA2.0100
April 512:00 PM CSTF1Ouachita Parish, LA3.0150
April 53:49 PM ESTF2Harrison, IN1.017$5,000 to $50,000
April 54:22 PM ESTF2Scott, IN2.017$500 to $5,000
April 54:25 PM ESTF2Jefferson, IN1.017$5,000 to $50,000
April 54:28 PM ESTF2Washington, IN1.010$500,000 to $5 million
April 54:15 PM CSTF1Coffee, TN1.030$500 to $5,000
April 54:34 PM CSTF3Cullman, AL3.0100$50,000 to $500,000
April 54:45 PM CSTF3Marshall, AL8.02775$500,000 to $5 million
April 55:10 PM CSTF3Etowah, AL8.05001$500,000 to $5 million
April 55:15 PM CSTF1Blount, AL1.0100$50,000 to $500,000
April 55:20 PM CSTF1Talladega, AL3.0100$5,000 to $50,000
April 55:45 PM CSTF2Calhoun, AL3.02005$50,000 to $500,000
April 57:35 PM ESTF2Pickens, GA5.0100$500,000 to $5 million
April 57:50 PM ESTF1Douglas, GA2.03316$500,000 to $5 million
April 58:05 PM ESTF2Cherokee, GA3.0100$500,000 to $5 million
April 58:10 PM ESTF1Fulton, GA1.077$500,000 to $5 million
April 58:15 PM ESTF1Fannin, GA1.0100$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.