Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1985

F0 tornado, Sangamon County, Illinois, July 14, 1985

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Sangamon County on July 14, 1985, touching down at 12:44 AM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 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
July 14, 1985
Touchdown
12:44 AM CDT (05:44 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Sangamon County
Touchdown point
39.800, -89.650
Record number
458

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

5.7 hours before the tornado, 97 km from the path. July 15, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1985-07-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2295 joules per kilogram, CIN -60, lifted condensation level 1089 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 1985-07-15The 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 96 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2295 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-60 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2980 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1089 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
96 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
182 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
4.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.3 hours after it, 97 km from the path. July 15, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1985-07-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 97 joules per kilogram, CIN -162, lifted condensation level 1025 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 1985-07-15The 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 -23 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 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
97 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-162 J/kg
Surface CAPE
479 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1025 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Springfield (SPI), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
04:00 UTC8372210° 6 kt1010.5
04:05 UTC220° 5 kt1010.5
04:58 UTC320° 22 kt421014.2
05:00 UTC7974300° 15 kt211012.9-TSRA
05:26 UTC280° 13 kt1014.2
05:36 UTC300° 7 kt1014.2
06:00 UTC6968260° 8 kt1014.6-TSRA
07:00 UTC6967330° 8 kt1013.5TSRA
07:29 UTC250° 5 kt1013.5

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 July 14, 1985

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 145:52 PM EDTF0Northampton, PA0.8660$500 to $5,000

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.