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.
1200 homes and businesses sustained varying degrees of damage. 101 of the 1200 were totally destroyed and 573 sustained major damage. Heavy damage occurred to Apollo High School, Kentucky Wesleyan College and a Winn-Dixie. Numerous automobiles were tossed.
During the morning hours of January 11, 1951, a squall line pushed across the San Franciso Bay area. The storms produced millions of dollars in damage as straight-line winds and tornadoes ripped through the region. Per the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) and National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) databases, one twister occurred on this day, an F2 in Sunnyvale. Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes lists two tornadoes, the Sunnyvale F2, as well as an F2 at San Jose. Upon doing research, we were able to definitively confirm two additional tornadoes, one that moved through parts of Marin and Sonoma counties and a weak one in Contra Cosa County. It is likely that other funnels occurred, though reports in the newspapers were not detailed enough to confirm others.
Details extracted from the March 1908 Monthly Weather Review. The article was by W. S. Belden, Section Director. Dated Vicksburg, MS, February 17, 1908. Described as a “tornado of remarkable energy and duration”.
44 tornadoes were confirmed on January 30, 2013. The strongest was given a rating of EF3. It tracked over 21 miles through parts of Bartow and Gordon Counties in Georgia. There were 17 injuries and 1 fatality.
This summary looks back at an estimated F4 tornado from January 28, 1947. It moved from parts of Fulton County, Arkansas into Oregon and Carter Counties in Missouri.
There was one tornado reported on January 28, 1956. It hit during the late evening in Faulkner County, AR. It moved to the northeast from the Wooster area to 1 mile south of Greenbriar. The Climatological Data Summary then states the tornado “went aloft for 10 miles, returning to the ground in Barney-Enola Area.”
Per the Storm Data Publication, this was the first tornado to hit in Delaware during the winter months (December through February). The twister moved to the northeast for only 1/2 mile. Four houses were destroyed.
This tornado moved to the northeast for about 20 miles. The Storm Data entry mentions that the tornado cloud was sighted several times and that during the early part of the path it was not continuous.
This summary looks back at an estimated F2 tornado from January 25, 1933. It moved through parts of Thomas & Brooks Counties in Georgia and caused damage near the town of Barwick.
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