Tornadoes · United States · Illinois

1989 tornadoes in Illinois

15 tornadoes touched down in Illinois in 1989, 63 percent below the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody. 1 were rated F4 or EF4 and above.

1988 1990 The whole country in 1989

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.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in Illinois in 1989

January 7 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
January 7	4:32 PM CST	F0	Franklin	0.5	20
January 7	4:55 PM CST	F2	Hamilton	27.0	100	6	$500,000 to $5 million
January 7	5:10 PM CST	F1	White	0.5	50
January 7	5:24 PM CST	F4	Wabash to IN	19.0	200	55	$5 million to $50 million

April 3 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 3	4:30 PM CDT	F1	Wayne	0.2	50	$5,000 to $50,000
April 3	4:53 PM CDT	F1	Edwards	0.6	50	$5,000 to $50,000
April 3	5:40 PM CDT	F0	Gallatin	0.2	50	under $50
April 3	7:45 PM CDT	F1	Massac	0.1	20

May 19 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 19	4:20 PM CDT	F1	Crawford	1.0	30			$500 to $5,000
May 19	5:00 PM CDT	F1	Jasper	0.2	20			$5,000 to $50,000

May 25 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 25	3:00 AM CDT	F1	Coles	0.8	30			$50,000 to $500,000
May 25	2:50 PM CDT	F1	Effingham	0.2	50			$5,000 to $50,000

June 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 5	1:05 PM CDT	F0	Kendall	0.1	10

July 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 24	8:10 PM CDT	F0	Wayne	0.1	10

October 16 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
October 16	7:00 PM CDT	F2	Wayne	2.0	800			$5,000 to $50,000

Nearby

Every tornado in Illinois since 1950 Warnings in force in Illinois The live radar over Illinois

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.