St. Louis tornado history

There is a long history of destructive tornadoes in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The third-deadliest, and the costliest in United States history, the 1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado, injured more than one thousand people and caused at least 255 fatalities in the City of St. Louis and in East St. Louis. The second-costliest tornado also occurred in St. Louis in September 1927.^[1] More tornado fatalities occurred in St. Louis than any other city in the United States.^[2] Also noteworthy is that destructive tornadoes occur in winter and autumn, as well as the typical months of spring.^[3] Additionally, damaging tornadoes occur in the morning and late at night, as well as the more common late afternoon to early evening maximum period.

In April 2011, an EF4 tornado on Good Friday caused widespread damage along a 22 mi (35 km) track across the northern part of the St. Louis metropolitan area; including significant damage to Lambert International Airport, causing a complete shutdown for over 24 hours, but no deaths.^[4] Prior to that event, a F4 tornado also struck the northern metro, and killed three in January 1967.^[5] Another F4 tornado struck the Granite City and Edwardsville, Illinois area in April 1981.^[6] During a major outbreak in December 2021, two tornadoes in the metro area killed 7 people.^[7] An EF3 tornado damaged approximately 5000 structures from the west-central to northeast edges of the city, including Forest Park, the Central West End, and North City, on the afternoon of May 16, 2025. Four fatalities and about 38 injuries were caused by the tornado and the straight-line winds from the supercell caused another fatality in South City.