PADUCAH — Monday marked the 99th anniversary of the March 18, 1925, Tri-State Tornado, which cut through southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and Indiana.
The storm traveled three hours on a 219-mile continuous path, killing 695 people and displacing 15,000. Another 2,027 were injured.
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service believe that the winds from that storm likely exceeded 300mph — an EF 5 tornado, according to the current enhanced Fujita scale.
Christina Wielgos, warning coordination meteorologist with the Paducah office of the National Weather Service, explains the storm’s aftermath like something out of a war movie.
Christina Wielgos
“The devastation was something of an event like a bomb going off,” Wielgos said. “It was just indescribable damage. Homes were completely leveled, and the debris carried, you know, many hundreds of miles away. We had livestock that was killed.”
Wielgos notes that meteorologists assume an area of low pressure moved from Missouri into Illinois. She said a warm front lifted north of that area allowed the atmosphere to heat up and become highly humid.
“That set the stage for the thunderstorms to develop,” Wielgos said. “You don’t get a tornado of that magnitude without having some very strong winds aloft. That is probably what happened to make that monster of a tornado.”
The storm affected 13 counties across three states — destroying more than 20 communities on its path. While areas like Biehle, Missouri; and Griffin, Indiana, were 100% leveled, Murphysboro, Illinois, had the most deaths —234 people killed.
WPSD Local 6 Chief Meteorologist Trent Okerson notes that weather alerts were practically non-existent in the ’20s. He said there was little communication about when severe weather would occur.
“The weather forecast was based on observation, word of mouth, or maybe something printed in the newspaper,” Okerson said. “There were no TV stations, and radio didn’t really include weather forecasts.”
According to Okerson, the word ‘tornado’ wasn’t allowed in a forecast until the 1940s.
“Of course, the lack of warning there contributed to the loss of life on that day,” he said.
Weather Radio
Okerson said the Dec. 10, 2021, tornado outbreak that swept through northwest Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas could be compared to the March 18, 1925, tornado.
“[The Dec. 10, 2021, tornado] was relatively close in strength and distance,” Okerson said. “There was about an 11- to 14-mile stretch in northwest Tennessee where the Dec. 10 tornado was not continuously on the ground.”
Okerson said if that break had not occurred, and the Dec. 10 tornado had been continuous from Arkansas to Kentucky, it would have surpassed the Tri-State Tornado in terms of length. Regarding strength, the Dec. 10 tornado was an EF 4 on the Fujita scale — a level down from the EF 5 1925 tornado.
Wielgos and Okerson agree that the 1925 Tri-State Tornado played a crucial role in the development of modern-day storm-tracking technology and warning systems.
“You got your weather radios and smartphone,” Okerson said. “We recommend that as part of their warning plan. Technology isn’t always foolproof, but having that extra layer of protection will help save lives in the event a severe weather threat occurs.”
