Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1992

F0 tornado, Pike County, Illinois, July 2, 1992

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Pike County on July 2, 1992, touching down at 4:55 PM CDT and reaching 250 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
July 2, 1992
Touchdown
4:55 PM CDT (21:55 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pike County
Touchdown point
39.620, -90.620
Record number
700

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:31 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
01:41 UTC02:04 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:15 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Paducah/Barkley, KY (KPAH), 12:00Z

9.9 hours before the tornado, 329 km from the path. July 2, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 12:00Z on 1992-07-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1159 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 563 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 12:00Z on 1992-07-02The 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 85 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 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
1159 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
733 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
563 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Paducah/Barkley, KY (KPAH), 00:00Z

2.1 hours after it, 329 km from the path. July 3, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 00:00Z on 1992-07-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3595 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 764 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, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 00:00Z on 1992-07-03The 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 102 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
3595 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3561 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
764 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
102 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
111 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

Quincy (UIN), 61 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:00 UTC706340° 9 kt1005.1TS
20:53 UTC290° 23 kt311006.8
21:00 UTC7070320° 15 kt301004.7-TSRA
21:04 UTC320° 15 kt311005.4
21:16 UTC290° 11 kt201005.1
21:27 UTC220° 19 kt251005.4
21:41 UTC150° 12 kt241006.1
22:00 UTC7067150° 11 kt201004.7-TSRA
23:00 UTC7068110° 4 kt1003.7TS
23:24 UTC30° 7 kt1005.1
23:34 UTC110° 7 kt1005.1

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1992 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 2, 1992

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 22:23 AM CDTF0Franklin, NE0.120
July 25:00 AM CDTF0Dodge, MN0.110
July 22:05 PM CDTF0Adams, IL0.1250
July 22:10 PM CDTF0Adams, IL0.8300$500 to $5,000
July 22:38 PM CDTF0Adams, IL0.2350
July 22:45 PM CDTF0Mahaska, IA0.113
July 24:01 PM ESTF0Miami, IN0.150
July 25:22 PM ESTF2Adams, IN1.550$50,000 to $500,000
July 26:10 PM ESTF0Shelby, IN0.120
July 26:20 PM CDTF3Rogers, OK4.01001$50,000 to $500,000
July 26:33 PM CDTF1Boone, MO0.550$50,000 to $500,000
July 26:43 PM CDTF0Boone, MO0.223
July 27:10 PM CDTF0Callaway, MO0.123
July 27:20 PM ESTF0Daviess, IN0.120
July 27:40 PM CDTF1Osage, MO0.550$50,000 to $500,000

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.