Over its history, the St. Louis area has been a tornado hotbed, with numerous funnels making their presence known. Dating back as far as the early 1870s to 2025, many proved deadly and catastrophic, while others were only a footnote in history. In this summary, we discuss the sixteen twisters officially documented within St. Louis proper.
At least three significant tornadoes occurred on August 21, 1883. By far the most damaging of the trio and the topic of this summary was a horrific F5 that tore through the Minnesota town of Rochester. Yet from the aftermath of this devastating tragedy, something wonderful would be created – the Mayo Clinic. Check out this premium summary by becoming a member!
On August 25, 1992, just one day before Hurricane Andrew made its third and final landfall, the towns of LaPlace and Reserve, LA were struck by one of the strongest tornadoes ever produced by a hurricane. This twister, spawned by the outer bands of Hurricane Andrew, carved a nine-mile path through both communities late in the night. Tragically, it took the lives of two people and 32 were injured.
A quick-hitting tornado struck in the dead of night along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Groundhog Mountain, VA, on August 1, 1965. Newspapers reported the event as “tornado-like,” but it did officially hit the records as a twister, rated F1. Numerous trees were mowed down, and one family in their new mobile home found themselves in harm’s way.
On August 10, 1924, a localized tornado event took place in Eastern Colorado, devastating the community of Thurman. While small in terms of how many tornadoes were documented, this was a historical event and remains the deadliest in Colorado state history.
On the evening of August 11, 1954, a small tornado event took place in Maine. Through our research, we have determined there may have been two twisters to occur on this day. This summary will cover an F2 that caused considerable damage near the city of Caribou. It’s not all that unusual for such instances to occur in Maine. However, this tornado caused a fatality and is the most recent to do so as of this summary’s publication.
On August 28, 1884, a deadly localized tornado outbreak would unfold across portions of eastern South Dakota. One of these twisters would become the second earliest photographed in history. There are sharp discrepancies over which tornado that day was photographed, and there is no detailed summary of the event in its entirety. In this article, I attempt to solve both of these longstanding unknowns. Check out this premium summary by becoming a member!
11 tornadoes struck parts of the High Plains on August 26, 2007. The strongest was a deadly EF4 that tore through the town of Northwood. In this summary, we look at the three significant tornadoes of the outbreak and the damage they caused.
It was one for the record books! A large, unexpected tornado outbreak occurred on August 24, 2016. 22 tornadoes were confirmed across parts of IN and OH. We look at five of them that hit in Howard County, IN including one of the strongest of the day.
On August 20, 1914, an F3 tornado ripped through the eastern edge of Wilke-Barre. 7 people were killed and over 70 were killed as 25 homes were leveled and over 100 others were damaged. Four of the fatalities occurred in a silk mill that was demolished.
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