EF1 tornado, Elmont to St Albans, Missouri, March 14, 2025

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

March 14, 2025

Touchdown

8:29 PM CDT (01:29 UTC)

Lifted

8:52 PM CDT (01:52 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

19.8 miles (31.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$148,000

County

Franklin County

Touchdown point

38.230, -91.242

Lift-off point

38.427, -90.983

Record number

2503141929-01

247 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 133 mph.

• Numerous trees down though conservation area
• Numerous trees snapped as well
• Sheet metal structure thrown several hundred feet
• Numerous empty semi trailers thrown

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

During the late afternoon of March 14, 2025, numerous severe thunderstorms developed across central Missouri and tracked east. After sunset, these thunderstorms began producing tornadoes, some strong, causing several injuries in the St. Louis county warning area (CWA). In total, 13 tornadoes touched down in the CWA, making it one of the most active outbreaks on record for the St. Louis CWA. Seven of these tornadoes occurred at least partially in St. Louis's Missouri counties.

At 8:29 PM a tornado began near the community of Elmont, MO, producing EF1 damage primarily to trees and one large barn. The tornado moved quickly to the northeast, and produced additional tree damage along Missouri route 185, and along Ridge Road within the Long Ridge Conservation Area. The tornado then continued northeast before ending very near Highway 47. Near the end of its path, the tornado damaged several homes, outbuildings, telephone poles and trees within the southern outskirts of Union, MO. The most significant of this damage occurred near N Bend Road, where damage to a home and barn suggested maximum wind speeds of approximately 105 miles per hour.

A tornado developed at 8:56pm on March 14th, 2025 on the east side of Villa Ridge, between American Inn Road and Saint Marys Road north of I-44. The tornado very quickly intensified as it moved into a neighborhood near the intersection of Interstate 44 and US Highway 100. In that neighborhood, the tornado damaged numerous homes, making several of them uninhabitable. The strongest estimated wind speeds in this neighborhood were estimated at 130 mph, based on significant damage to three of these homes. The tornado continued to the northeast, damaging an industrial facility before moving into a heavily wooded area in northeastern Franklin county. Here, the tornado resulted in a narrow track of concentrated, intense tree damage. There were also a number of homes in the path that sustained damage. Before crossing into St. Louis County, the tornado hit a microwave tower, knocking the top portion of the tower to the ground. These winds were also estimated to be 130mph.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

22 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:07 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:06 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Sullivan Regional (UUV), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:31 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

53 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.