Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1986

F0 tornado, Sangamon County, Illinois, May 16, 1986

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Sangamon County on May 16, 1986, touching down at 5:25 PM CDT and reaching 10 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
May 16, 1986
Touchdown
5:25 PM CDT (22:25 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sangamon County
Touchdown point
39.670, -89.850
Record number
306

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:09 UTC23:05 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
22:29 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningILX

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

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

10.4 hours before the tornado, 113 km from the path. May 16, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1986-05-16Temperature 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 -8320, lifted condensation level 812 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 1986-05-16The 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 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8320 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
812 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.6 hours after it, 113 km from the path. May 17, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1986-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 297 joules per kilogram, CIN -90, lifted condensation level 961 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 1986-05-17The 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 89 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
297 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-90 J/kg
Surface CAPE
508 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
961 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1986 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 16, 1986

31 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 165:10 AM CDTF1Smith, KS18.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 164:00 PM CDTF1Clay, KS9.0100$5,000 to $50,000
May 164:55 PM CDTF1Comanche, KS0.2100$500 to $5,000
May 165:20 PM CDTF0Macon, IL0.210
May 165:20 PM CDTF0Sangamon, IL0.210
May 166:00 PM CDTF0Swisher, TX0.230
May 166:04 PM CDTF0Briscoe, TX11.0100
May 166:12 PM CDTF0Swisher, TX22.0100
May 166:15 PM CDTF1Piatt, IL0.510$500 to $5,000
May 166:33 PM CDTF0Hall, TX0.230
May 166:33 PM CDTF0Donley, TX0.230
May 167:35 PM CDTF0Cottle, TX0.150
May 167:48 PM CDTF0Foard, TX5.0200
May 168:10 PM CDTF0Foard, TX5.0150
May 168:18 PM CDTF1Alfalfa, OK5.030$5,000 to $50,000
May 169:00 PM CDTF0Washita, OK0.223
May 169:10 PM CDTF0Custer, OK0.550
May 169:13 PM CDTF0Hardeman, TX0.210
May 169:23 PM CDTF0Wilbarger, TX0.210
May 169:35 PM CDTF1Caddo, OK0.250$5,000 to $50,000
May 169:45 PM CDTF0Hardeman, TX0.210
May 169:51 PM CDTF1Hardeman, TX2.0150$5,000 to $50,000
May 169:53 PM CDTF0Wilbarger, TX0.210
May 1610:30 PM CDTF0Caddo, OK0.250
May 1610:44 PM CDTF1Oklahoma, OK2.050$500,000 to $5 million
May 1610:50 PM CDTF0Wilbarger, TX0.210
May 1611:00 PM CDTF0Tillman, OK0.250$5,000 to $50,000
May 1612:09 AM CDTF0Lincoln, OK0.250
May 1612:10 AM CDTF1Garvin, OK0.573$50,000 to $500,000
May 1612:10 AM CDTF1Pottawatomie, OK0.573$5,000 to $50,000
May 1612:30 AM CDTF0Haskell, OK0.273$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.