Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1994

F0 tornado, Ruma To to Baldwin, Illinois, April 28, 1994

From Ruma To to Baldwin, this F0 tornado ran 8.0 miles across Randolph County on April 28, 1994, touching down at 12:30 PM CDT and reaching 60 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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
April 28, 1994
Touchdown
12:30 PM CDT (17:30 UTC)
Path length
8.0 miles (12.9 km)
Path width
60 yards (55 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Randolph County
Touchdown point
38.150, -90.000
Lift-off point
38.180, -89.850
Record number
263

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down north of Ruma and moved northeast before lifting near Baldwin. The damage path was intermittent but Illinois State Police troopers followed it and observed numerous trees blown down and a few farm buildings damaged.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

8 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:22 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:22 UTC18:00 UTCTornado WarningLSX
18:00 UTC18:23 UTCTornado 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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:03 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

5.5 hours before the tornado, 163 km from the path. April 28, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 12:00Z on 1994-04-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 17 joules per kilogram, CIN -408, lifted condensation level 1344 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 12:00Z on 1994-04-28The 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 215 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-408 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1344 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
215 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
314 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.5 hours after it, 163 km from the path. April 29, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Paducah/Barkley, KY at 00:00Z on 1994-04-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1116 joules per kilogram, CIN -57, lifted condensation level 1419 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 1994-04-29The 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 117 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
1116 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1710 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1419 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
117 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
148 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Belleville - Scott AFB (BLV), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:00 UTC5654.8690° 9 kt191016.9
16:09 UTC110° 14 kt1016.9
16:17 UTC110° 16 kt1016.6
16:36 UTC110° 16 kt261016.3
16:41 UTC110° 13 kt1016.6
17:00 UTC5756110° 15 kt1016.6
17:20 UTC90° 9 kt1016.3
17:31 UTC130° 8 kt1016.9
18:00 UTC5857120° 5 kt1015.9
18:15 UTC30° 5 kt1015.9
19:00 UTC605960° 5 kt1015.2

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

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:29 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 28, 1994

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 289:20 AM CDTF1Christian, MO7.020$50,000 to $500,000
April 2812:15 PM CDTF0Saint Francois, MO0.330
April 281:18 PM CDTF0Randolph, IL0.333$500 to $5,000
April 284:05 PM CDTF0Hancock, KY0.110under $50
April 284:53 PM CDTF0Scott, MO0.113
April 286:06 PM EDTF0Owen, KY5.030$5,000 to $50,000
April 286:07 PM EDTF0Clinton, OH0.120
April 2812:57 AM CDTF0Johnson, TX0.110$5,000 to $50,000

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.