Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1995

F0 tornado, Carlock, Illinois, May 13, 1995

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across McLean County on May 13, 1995, touching down at 7:15 PM CDT and reaching 10 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
May 13, 1995
Touchdown
7:15 PM CDT (00:15 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
McLean County
Touchdown point
40.570, -89.150
Record number
358

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado briefly touched down 1 SW of Carlock damaging two homes and three outbuildings. No injuries were reported and damage was estimated around $150,000.

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

The warnings

14 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:01 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:01 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningILX
00:58 UTC02:00 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

0.3 hours before the tornado, 66 km from the path. May 14, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 1995-05-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2056 joules per kilogram, CIN -80, lifted condensation level 699 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, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 1995-05-14The 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 289 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
2056 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-80 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1206 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
699 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
289 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
320 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.2
Supercell composite
18.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

11.7 hours after it, 66 km from the path. May 14, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 1995-05-14Temperature 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 -71212, lifted condensation level 1392 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, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 1995-05-14The 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 30 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-71212 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1392 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bloomington/Norm (BMI), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:00 UTC6565190° 22 kt997.6
23:20 UTC190° 20 kt998.6
00:00 UTC65.8465.84190° 23 kt998.3
01:00 UTC6767190° 15 kt997.3
02:00 UTC6868190° 23 kt997.6

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 13, 1995

25 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 1312:00 PM PDTF0Tulare, CA2.510$50,000 to $500,000
May 133:20 PM CDTF2Scotland, MO8.02003$500,000 to $5 million
May 132:15 PM PDTF0Fresno, CA1.033$5,000 to $50,000
May 134:18 PM CDTF4Hancock, IL50.01,0007$5 million to $50 million
May 135:18 PM CDTF2Knox, IL14.08802$500,000 to $5 million
May 135:55 PM CDTF4Fulton, IL7.088045$5 million to $50 million
May 136:15 PM CDTF3Mason, IL25.088025$500,000 to $5 million
May 136:15 PM CDTF1Peoria, IL7.0220
May 136:44 PM CDTF0Peoria, IL0.110
May 137:10 PM CDTF0Woodford, IL0.110
May 137:50 PM CDTF1McLean, IL4.0220$500,000 to $5 million
May 137:58 PM CDTF0Benton, AR0.110
May 138:46 PM CDTF0Benton, AR0.130
May 139:25 PM CDTF0Iroquois, IL1.030$500 to $5,000
May 1310:13 PM ESTF1Cass, IN2.840$50,000 to $500,000
May 1310:24 PM ESTF1Miami, IN1.5701$50,000 to $500,000
May 1310:57 PM CDTF0Madison, AR0.130
May 1310:58 PM ESTF2Montgomery, IN14.0250310$500,000 to $5 million
May 1311:25 PM ESTF0Tipton, IN0.140$500 to $5,000
May 1312:35 AM EDTF2Bullitt, KY15.0200$500 to $5,000
May 1311:47 PM ESTF2Marion, IN6.5400$50,000 to $500,000
May 1312:48 AM EDTF1Hardin, KY0.5200
May 1312:15 AM CDTF2Crittenden, KY8.073$50,000 to $500,000
May 131:25 AM EDTF1Hardin, KY0.5200
May 131:55 AM EDTF0Mercer, KY0.5200

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.