April 20th, 2004: Where It All Started

I've decided to start writing up logs of my weather experiences before I really even knew much about them since they made some huge impacts on my life. I also decided to do the first one on the event that without it, I would not be typing this right now. The April 20th, 2004 Granville-Utica, IL tornado. I'm not sure I'll have a ton to write about since it was so long ago and I was only 4 years old. Also, all photos and videos of this event (unless radar, a graphic created by the NWS, or similar) I either won't include or will link to their respective sites since I don't want to be infringing on anyone's copyright.

The day of April 20th, 2004 was a Tuesday, meaning I'd spend the morning and early afternoon at preschool. I have absolutely zero recollection of what happened in the day prior to the tornado, and I probably wouldn't bore you with an in-depth story even if I did. All I can really recall is that I was at home doing something (probably like drawing on the walls or fridge, that was a common pasttime of mine at that age), when my mom started screaming about a tornado. The Weather Channel was displaying radar with a tornado warning being outlined for our county, Putnam. She sent me and the pets downstairs into the basement. I remember being down there for a while and screaming as the winds started howling outside and the power flickered out. I heard my sister and mom making a ruckus upstairs although I couldn't make out what they were saying. Unknown to me at the time, they were looking out the fornt window and watching a satellite tornado rip through our yard and a corn field about 50 yards away. The main tornado, an F3 wedge, had roared through only a quarter mile away from our house, but the window was at a poor angle to be able to actually see it. My aunt (who lost the battle to cancer almost 4 years ago now) and cousin watched the wedge rumble by as they drove from their mobile home to our house to shelter. According to their account, golf ball sized hail followed shortly after the tornado, what I would assume was the RFD of the storm. My dad was at work when all of this happened and pretty much didn't know the extent of the damage, or whether or not he'd even come home to a house or not. He did, but was pretty shocked at the destruction in town. I also do remember getting into the car afterwards to go check on something uptown and seeing all of the damage. The school where I had just been hours before sustained heavy damage. I'm relieved that the tornado ripped through after school hours, as students would have been sheltering in hallways, very possibly leading to casualties. The chunks of brick wall that fell could very easily have severaly injured or killed an adult, never mind a 5 year old. The few staff that were still at the school sheltered in the bathrooms and thankfully survived without incident.

The town of Utica, however, was not as lucky. Eight people perished as they sheltered in the basement of the Milestone Tap and it collapsed. A stillborn baby was considered a ninth victim by the town, but not officially by the NWS. The worst part about this tragedy? Several of those who died were sheltering here after fleeing their mobile homes.

Their mobile homes were not impacted by the tornado.

It sucks, but what can you do? It's one of those situations that meteorology can't really solve. No amount of advanced or improved warning would've saved their lives. In fact, had there been no warning at all, they would've made it. Doing the right thing killed them.

April 20th was also a very interesting scenario. A warm front was in place with high helicity but little instability. A rain shield persisted across the areas of high helicity until early to mid-afternoon when a little bit of heating and destabilization took place. The result was low-topped supercells that spun like tops. This day actually featured several tornadoes, but the most significant was the one that struck Granville and Utica.

Incredible video by Jerry Funfsinn of the tornado as it tore through Granville: https://vimeo.com/64466764

DOWNLOAD a PowerPoint presentation created by Paul Sirvatka on this event: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/NSWW05/21%20Sirvatka/April%2020.ppt

Summary of this event by Jon Davies: http://www.jondavies.net/042004ilin/042004ilin.htm

Map of confirmed tornado tracks:

This event impacted me in such a way that it would lead to an obsession that would essentially consume my life. I learned all I could about severe weather as a kid and now I've chased down 4 tornadoes. A tragic event that affected the community when I was 4 changed the entire rest of my life for the better.