Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1986

F0 tornado, Winnebago County, Illinois, September 28, 1986

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Winnebago County on September 28, 1986, touching down at 6:15 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
September 28, 1986
Touchdown
6:15 PM CDT (23:15 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Winnebago County
Touchdown point
42.270, -89.200
Record number
698

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:00 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:14 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
23:00 UTC00:00 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

11.3 hours before the tornado, 181 km from the path. September 28, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 12:00Z on 1986-09-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2727 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 720 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 1986-09-28The 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 44 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
2727 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
282 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
720 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
117 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

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

0.7 hours after it, 181 km from the path. September 29, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peoria Regional, IL at 00:00Z on 1986-09-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2163 joules per kilogram, CIN -13, lifted condensation level 1331 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 1986-09-29The 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 76 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
2163 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2480 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1331 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
8.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 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 September 28, 1986

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 285:23 PM CDTF2Jefferson, WI9.01001$500,000 to $5 million
September 285:34 PM CDTF4Polk, IA20.0250$500,000 to $5 million
September 287:05 PM CDTF1Clay, IA0.113$5,000 to $50,000
September 287:35 PM CDTF0Webster, IA0.113
September 289:45 PM CDTF2Floyd, IA0.2232$50,000 to $500,000
September 2812:45 AM EDTF0Wayne, MI0.210$50 to $500

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.