4/20/04: "Surprise" Illinois/Indiana Tornado Outbreak

[Jerry Funfsinn]

I thought it fitting that the 5 year anniversary of this event should be recognized. I know it is still remembered among IL/IN chasers from this part of the country and it certainly did come as a surprise.More than 20 tornadoes from
supercells that developed along an advancing warmfront in a high shear/ low cape environment.Jon Davies( http://members.cox.net/jondavies3/042004ilin/042004ilin.htm (http://members.cox.net/jondavies3/042004ilin/042004ilin.htm) ) and Al Pietrycha ( http://www.stormeyes.org/pietrycha/040420/summary.html (http://www.stormeyes.org/pietrycha/040420/summary.html))
have excellent web pages examining the synoptic setup leading up to this event.
I was working at home when my wife brought to my attention a tornado warning one county over to the southwest. Thinking nothing of it, considering there wasn't a big risk of severe weather that day, I asked her and my son to come along
figuring we will see what the big deal is and get a country drive out of it. I've lived in this area all my life so I know the area well, so we headed south across the Illinois river at Spring Valley and caught visual of the suspect storm south of Granville,
Illinois.The storm was not very tall and the anvil was a little diffuse but the base was amazing. I reported what the storm was doing via ham radio in contact through ESDA to the NWS in the Quad Cities. What I remember most was that the surface
winds where absolutely roaring into this storm and the structure was something rarely seen in Illinois.When the first funnels touched down I thought that it would miss the city of Granville since it was taking more of a northeast track.
For those chasers who like to get close to the action, what transpired next should be noted. The storm went from butt dragging wall cloud to multiple vortex tornado to wedge in literally 60 seconds. On top of that it accelerated more northerly and
went right into town. From this point on I was in shock, not only that a tornado was hitting a populated area but that friends and family were in the path. We continued to track the tornado along its 15 mile path across the Illinois River, the south
end of Peru (through my brothers neighborhood) and then the city of Utica where unfortunately 8 people lost there lives.The ultimate irony of this storm was that residents of mobile homes left there residence to take shelter in downtown Utica at the
Millstone Bar & Grill. This was the location of all of the fatalities.

http://www.creativejetstream.com/pictures/granville1_042004.jpg http://www.creativejetstream.com/pictures/granville2_042004.jpg
This is the tornado as it entered Granville, Illinois. The picture on the right shows the gymnasium roof of the grade school being ejected from the tornado.

http://www.creativejetstream.com/pictures/peru_042004.jpg http://www.creativejetstream.com/pictures/utica_042004.jpg

The first picture is the tornado as it nears Peru and the second is when it hits Utica Illinois. Note the city water tower to the left of the funnel.


I've added a longer segment to the Granville/Utica IL tornado to my video page that pretty much covers what we saw on that chase. http://creativejetstream.com/flash/Main.html (http://creativejetstream.com/flash/Main.html)

Part I of a PULITZER-PRIZE-WINNING Chicago Tribune Series on the Utica tornado http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0412050232dec05,0,4852884.story (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0412050232dec05,0,4852884.story)

Here is a link to some fascinating video of the cycloidial marks the tornado left in its path. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XxLqrD3K1s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XxLqrD3K1s)

It is and always will be the most memorable backyard chase I've had..

[Skip Talbot]

Thanks for sharing your pictures and account, Jerry.

This is a day that I will never forget, and it has special meaning for me because it was the day I caught my first tornado. Its even more remarkable that my first intercept was on a day that started with a 0% day1 tornado outlook.

As cells initiated in central IL, I ran up north on I-57 out of Champaign to catch one of them as they came close to the interstate. I intercepted near Chebanse, IL. The structure I saw that day was something I had also never seen before, and as Jerry noted, is quite rare for IL. A stacked plates LP supercell:
http://skip.cc/chase/040420/chase03.JPG

It was a little hazy that day, but you could still clearly make out all of the features. A few minutes later I saw my first tornado as it touched down near Kankakee:

http://skip.cc/chase/040420/chase08.JPG

I'm also very thankful this tornado only did limited F1 damage with no deaths or injuries. A rope in a field, the perfect catch.

Full log and pictures: http://www.skip.cc/chase/040420

[Kurt Hulst]

I remember this day very well.

Intercepted a double touchdown around 5:40pm CST, 3 miles northwest of Greentown, IN and 5-6 miles north of Kokomo,IN. In Miami county.

Another touchdown about 10 minutes later in Wabash County. Strong rotation rated F1. Had very weak contrast so I inverted the second picture. it was on the ground picking up debris.


http://midwestchasers.com/2004/April/April20_04%282%29.jpg

http://midwestchasers.com/2004/April/April20_04.jpg

http://midwestchasers.com/2004/April/April20_04INV.jpg

This funnel had several ground circulations

http://midwestchasers.com/2004/April/April20_04%287%29.jpg

[Peter Nicholos]

I was also on the cell Skip was on. I didn't have far to go to intercept it. We first intercepted the cell when it was west of Clifton, IL. and followed it all the way into K3. The tornado was going up and down until it reached 5000 south road where it stayed on the ground. We were about a mile from the tornado.
Here a couple of crappy stills from the video.