SPC Stats

Path length: 74.5 miles

Width:  100 yards

Fatalities:  0

Injuries:  0

Rating:  F2

County:  Lee, DeKalb, Kendall, Will

It was a family of small tornadoes amidst straight line winds that covered a good 70 miles through parts of Lee, DeKalb, Kendall and Will Counties in Illinois on August 15, 1958.  The SPC officially has this listed as one tornado with a path length of 74.5 miles.  It was given a rating of F2.  Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes states this was a family of tornadoes. The Climatological Data National Summary from August 1958 reports, “Tornado path not well defined and there may have been 2 or more funnels involved.”  Newspaper articles at the time reported more wind damage than tornado damage.  There were no fatalities or injuries recorded with this event.  The family moved ESE from south of Dixon to near Compton, near Sandwich where extensive damage occurred at the fairgrounds and ended near Joliet.  

Climatological Data National Summary Entry

Tornado and associated wind squalls moved rapidly from south of Dixon to Compton, Sandwich, northeast of Plattville, and south of Joliet.  Heaviest damage at Sandwich, where a great number of trees damaged or destroyed but almost no structural damage observed. Barns destroyed at Compton, south of Waterman, and northeast of Plattville indicate tornadic force.  Much damage due to straight winds. Tornado path not well defined and there may have been 2 or more funnels involved. Time fixes not certain. Storm moved east-southeastward.

Tornado Path

Click Map To Enlarge

SPC coordinates:  Start: 41.77 / -89.47   End:  41.50 / -88.07      

Note:  Exact tornado path may not be straight and/or continuous.

Newspaper Clippings

Discrepancies:

We gathered information for this event from the SPC & NCDC Databases, the August 1958 Climatological Data National Summary (CDNS) and Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes and found the following differences:

Path Length:

  • SPC/NCDC have a 74.5 mile path length.
  • CDNS has 75 mile path and indicates path was not well defined and that there may have been more than 1 funnel.
  • Grazulis has a family of tornadoes crossing 70 miles.

Width:

  • CDNS has a range of widths from 75 to 200 yards.
  • Remaning sources have a 100 yard width.

Counties:

  • NCDC lists the entire event under Lee County.  They don’t have a breakdown for DeKalb, Kendall and Will Counties.

      Sources:

      The Storm Prediction Center

      NCDC Storm Events Database

      August 1958 Climatological Data National Summary

      newspapers.com

      Grazulis, Thomas P. (1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. Page 1016-1017.

      Questions or comments about this summary?  Contact us here!

      Join the tornado history discussion on our Discord Server!

      Note:  There are some images/videos in our summaries that were licensed to us to be used only on this website. If you would like to use an image/video in your project or blog, please contact us and we will grant permission if possible.

      Newspaper clips are embedded via newspapers.com. Please see their terms and conditions.

      ————————————————

      Would you like to see more summaries like this one?  Support Tornado Talk on Patreon! Become a Patron!


      0 Comments

      Leave a Reply

      Avatar placeholder

      You cannot copy content of this page