Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 1988

F0 tornado, Sullivan County, Indiana, September 19, 1988

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Sullivan County on September 19, 1988, touching down at 7:00 PM EST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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
September 19, 1988
Touchdown
7:00 PM EST (00:00 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Sullivan County
Touchdown point
38.970, -87.400
Record number
531

The warnings

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

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 08:56 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.

Salem-Leckrone, IL (KSLO), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 135 km from the path. September 20, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem-Leckrone, IL at 00:00Z on 1988-09-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 886 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 551 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Salem-Leckrone, IL at 00:00Z on 1988-09-20The 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 14 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
886 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1349 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
551 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
14 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-22 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.1
Supercell composite
-0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Salem-Leckrone, IL (KSLO), 12:00Z

12.0 hours after it, 135 km from the path. September 20, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem-Leckrone, IL at 12:00Z on 1988-09-20Temperature 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 -13281, lifted condensation level 1315 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, Salem-Leckrone, IL at 12:00Z on 1988-09-20The 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 93 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-13281 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1315 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
129 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
1.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Terre Haute (HUF), 54 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC8071200° 16 kt221004.1
23:00 UTC8071190° 17 kt241003.4
00:00 UTC7971190° 13 kt201003
01:00 UTC6865270° 9 kt1005.8TSRA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1988 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 19, 1988

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 191:40 PM CDTF0Carroll, IL0.110$500 to $5,000
September 195:05 PM CDTF0Waushara, WI0.123
September 195:35 PM ESTF1Benton, IN1.050$5,000 to $50,000
September 195:37 PM CDTF0Marathon, WI0.123
September 196:35 PM ESTF1Clay, IN0.4302$500 to $5,000
September 198:40 PM ESTF1Brown, IN3.0801$50,000 to $500,000
September 199:05 PM ESTF0Bartholomew, IN0.120$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.