On Wednesday, March 18, 1925, the deadliest and longest tracking tornado on record produced incredible devastation in three states. Residents of those locations received no warning that a tornado was about to strike. When it was all over, 675 people lost their lives and over 15,000 homes were destroyed.
An Astonishing Weather Event
For residents of southeast Missouri and southern Illinois, the environment changed on the Wednesday morning of March 18, 1925. The temperature jumped up into the low 70s and the dew point surged to the low 60s.
The U.S. Weather Bureau in St. Louis had been tracking an area of low pressure that moved out of the Rockies to Oklahoma and then on to Missouri. There was an attending cold front with the storm and the warm front moved northward from the Gulf of Mexico. Since the temperature had risen suddenly in southern Missouri and southern Illinois, it was obvious that a warm front had passed through.
The official forecast from the U.S. Weather Bureau in St. Louis mentioned that there would be showers in the region, with shifting winds and then colder temperatures. The word tornado wasn’t mentioned because it was verboten.
Back in 1887, the U.S. Army Signal Corps, which was in charge of weather forecasting, banned the word tornado from being used by weather forecasters. It was decided that since tornadoes couldn’t be predicted then any mention of the word could strike fear into the public. Forecasters were forbidden to study tornadoes or even mention them in a public forum.
By early afternoon, thunderstorms began to develop in the warm sector of the storm from Missouri to Kentucky and Tennessee. At 1 p.m. a thunderstorm cell began to rotate near Ellington, Missouri. At 1:01 p.m. a funnel cloud touched the ground and the misery began. The first fatality occurred when a local farmer was struck by a falling tree.
By 3:30 pm. when the tornado lifted and dissipated in southwest Indiana, 694 more people perished from this atmospheric “monster”. Many thousands more were left homeless and destitute. Factories, businesses, and even schools were destroyed.
Here are some observations during that time frame :
Missouri
As mentioned, a tornado touched down near Ellington, Missouri at 1:01 p.m. The farmer who was killed was Sam Flowers, who was just released from prison.
At 1:15 p.m. the tornado struck Annapolis, Missouri with such incredible destructive fury, that 90 percent of the town was destroyed and four people were killed. Residents indicated that the funnel was turning and twisting in different directions and was moving at a fantastic speed (it was moving at an astonishing 73 mph)!
Photo of damage in Missouri following the Tri-State Tornado on March 18, 1925. Credit-Pinterest-Public Domain
The neighboring town of Leadanna encountered 25 percent damage. Before crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois, the town of Biehle was destroyed. Residents there described two large funnels next to each other for over three miles. This indicated that the event included multiple tornadoes at times. All told, there were 11 fatalities in Missouri.
Illinois
Illinois took the brunt of this horrible tornado. It raced across the Mississippi River and into Illinois just after 2 p.m.
The first town in line was Gorham and its 500 residents., where the tornado struck around 2:26 p.m. First, there was a thunderstorm that was dropping hail the size of golf balls. Shortly thereafter, residents described hearing a roar, much louder than any train. It is also described as a “pillar of black smoke about a mile wide.”
Photo showing damage from the Tri-State Tornado in Gorham, Illinois, on March 18, 1925. Credit-Pinterest-Public Domain.
Complete destruction was in progress. Parts of buildings, trees, clothing, and household appliances all filled the sky. Houses were blown off of their foundations and were twisting all over the place. While a restaurant was collapsing and killing a cook, a cow was lifted into the air and was dropped on the roof. There were 37 fatalities in Gorham on that fateful day.
Next was Murphysboro, a railroad town with around 12,000 residents, which was struck just after 2:30 p.m. Once again, there was a description of black clouds filled with debris, about a mile wide, racing along the ground. Houses were lifted and destroyed. The destruction included 100 square blocks. A large fire the next day engulfed 70 more square blocks.
Unfortunately, the Longfellow Grade School took a direct hit and much of the building collapsed. An accounting of events is included in an article on popularmechanics.com.
At the Longfellow Grade School, children were rushing out of the building as it collapsed, trapping roughly half of the 450 students. A block away, at the railroad repair yard, 35 men were killed as the tornado laid waste to their so-called shops. According to Akin, the shops’ many survivors rushed toward the school and began removing the rubble, “literally tearing their hands to the bone in their efforts.” Eleven died there and many more were hurt. Many of the seriously injured, including Akin’s father, were put aboard an emergency train that left for St. Louis 3 hours later.
A photo of tornado damage to Grade School in Murphysboro, Illinois, from the Tri-State Tornado on March 18, 1925. Credit-Pinterest-Public Domain,
Rescuers worked for days to clear rubble and look for survivors in Murphysboro. At a local school, a young survivor was pulled alive from the rubble two days late. Unfortunately, 17 children were killed.
The overall death toll at Murphysboro was 234 and 623 were injured. Many of the injured needed surgery to amputate limbs.
At 2:45 p.m. the tornado arrived at De Soto and was described as a churning black mass that was moving at a tremendous speed and about a mile and a half wide. Thirty percent of the town was destroyed.
The tornado only destroyed about 20 percent of the small mining town of West Frankfort. It was described as a very large wedge about a mile and a half wide and two smaller funnels near the main tornado. Miners came up from an underground shaft and saw the incredible damage.
A photo shows damage at West Frankfort, Illinois, from the Tri-State Tornado on March 25, 1925. Credit-Pinterest-Pubic Domain.
According to a publication in ustornadoes.com, a farmer found a barber chair from some other town, and a bond — that was in a safe, to begin with — was found 125 miles away and later mailed back. A house was also left standing while the trees surrounding it were cut off at the trunk or uprooted. The death toll was high with 127 losing their lives and most of the fatalities were women and children
As 4 p.m. approached, the tornado was ready to cross the border into Indiana and unleash more of its unbelievable fury. All told, 613 lost their lives in Illinois on that day.
Indiana
The first Indiana town across the border was Griffin where the tornado hit a little past 4 p.m. By that time, the tornado was moving at 73 mph. ! The town was 100 percent destroyed. Residents described one main tornado surrounded by three smaller ones. The death toll at Griffin was 25 and 202 were injured.
At that time, the tornado changed direction just a bit (moving just north of due northeast). This put the town of Princeton in its path. The tornado struck before 4:20 p.m. Just before that, witnesses in rural areas close by reported mud and debris traveling at a tremendous speed with Many farms destroyed. In Princeton, the tornado destroyed 25 percent of the town and 45 residents lost their lives.
Mercifully, this historic and devastating tornado lifted and disintegrated around 4:30 pm.
Here are some incredible statistics about the Tri-State Tornado complied by www.tornadofacts.net.
The Tri-State Tornado occurred on Wednesday, March 18th, 1925.
The damage was estimated at $16.5M and in 2024 adjusted dollars that is approximately $2.4B.
Three states were affected by the Tri-State Tornado: Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri.
Thirteen counties in three states were affected. In Illinois Franklin, Hamilton, Jackson, White, and Williamson counties were affected. In Indiana Gibson, Pike, and Posey counties were affected. In Missouri Bollinger, Iron, Madison, Perry, and Reynolds counties were affected.
The path of the Tri-State Tornado was 235 miles with an average width of 3600 feet, however, there were moments when the width reached over 1 mile.
The Tri-State Tornado lasted for 3 1/2 hours, starting down at 1:01 pm 3 miles NNW of Ellington, MO, and dissipating at 4:30 pm 3 miles SW of Petersburg, IN.
The average forward speed of this tornado was 62 miles per hour with a record-setting speed of 73 miles per hour at one point.
The Tri-State Tornado was an F5 on the Fujita Scale with winds reaching near 300 miles-per-hour.
695 deaths and 2,027 injuries are associated with the Tri-State Tornado.
Illinois had the largest loss of life with 613 deaths and still stands as the record for the largest death toll within a tornadic event in a single U.S. state.
164 square miles were devastated by the Tri-State Tornado.
15,000 homes across three states were severely damaged or destroyed.
9 schools across the three affected states were destroyed and 69 students perished.
The Tri-State Tornado was part of a deadly outbreak that produced several deadly tornadoes all on the same day. A total of 747 facilities and 2,298 injuries were reported, with the majority associated with the Tri-State Tornado
Tri-State Tornado Records
The deadliest tornado in U.S. history with 695 deaths; twice as high as the 2nd deadliest tornado.
The 2nd deadliest tornado in world history.
The deadliest tornado in Illinois history with 613 deaths.
The deadliest tornado in Indiana history with 71 deaths.
The 5th costliest tornado in U.S. history.
The longest-lasting tornado in world history.
The greatest distance traveled for a tornado in world history.
The longest damage path for a tornado at 151 to 235 miles. The highest forward speed at 73 miles per hour.
Meteorological Conditions
The surface weather map for that day showed an area of low pressure moving northeastward from Missouri into Illinois with attending warm and cold fronts. It appears that the low pressure occluded in southeast Missouri (cold front catches the warm front) creating a “triple point” where there is plenty of turning in the atmosphere with height (helicity). We know that there was strong warm advection before the event with temperatures in the low 70s and dew points in the low 60s.
A US Weather Bureau surface weather map sequence on the day of the Tri-State Tornado on March 18, 2015.
A very strong low-level jet stream was also in place just above the surface as winds veered with height so the wind shear would have been in place those recreating this event estimate that there were helicity values of 340 m2 s−2 in the vicinity of the Tri-State supercell track (that is very high).
The event probably consisted of several tornadoes, rather than just one single tornado, and we know that at times there were multiple vortices. What’s almost beyond belief is how extensive the F5 tornado damage was. Before the Fajita scale was updated, F5 winds ranged from 26 to 318 mph.
There were other tornadoes that day, from the Ohio Valley to Tennessee which resulted in 52 more fatalities and 271 injuries.
Aftermath
There were no federal programs or declarations of disaster areas at that time. many farmers lost their land and businesses were wiped out. It was difficult to get enough money to rebuild and then there were incredible medical hardships.
Here is a description of the terrible aftermath compliments of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
”Scenes of suffering and horror marked the storm and re. Throughout the night relief workers and ambulances endeavored to make their way through the streets strewn with wreckage, fallen telegraph poles and wires, and burning embers. The only light afforded was that of the burning area.”
“The cost was $17 billion to repair the tornado’s destruction.”
A tornado spotting system was soon developed to help with the communication of tornado information to the public, in tandem with radio stations. It wasn’t until after World War Two that a more serious effort was made to understand and predict tornadoes.
Scientific advances like Dopper Radar and satellite photos have helped in this endeavor. Also, new computer models can help meteorologists pinpoint areas where tornadoes may occur on a given day and even several days into the future.
A Doppler Radar image from a thunderstorm cell with a possible tornado in Wisconsin. Credit- NOAA.
I can only imagine the environmental effects that a storm of this nature can impose, but I’ll leave that topic for another time. Hopefully, we will never have to experience anything like the Tri-State Tornado again.
