Tornadoes in Saint Louis County, Missouri

1. F0 / EF040 to 72 mph on the F scale, 65 to 85 mph on the EF scale

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

2. F1 / EF173 to 112 mph on the F scale, 86 to 110 mph on the EF scale

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

3. F2 / EF2113 to 157 mph on the F scale, 111 to 135 mph on the EF scale

   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. F3 / EF3158 to 206 mph on the F scale, 136 to 165 mph on the EF scale

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

5. F4 / EF4207 to 260 mph on the F scale, 166 to 200 mph on the EF scale

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

6. F5 / EF5261 to 318 mph on the F scale, over 200 mph on the EF scale

   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.

Tornadoes

60

Deaths

37

Injuries

686

F4 and above

4

Worst on record

F4, February 10, 1959

1. F4 St. Louis tornado, Missouri and IllinoisFebruary 10, 195921 killed, 345 injured
2. F4, Franklin, Saint Louis, Saint Clair and Clinton counties, Missouri and IllinoisFebruary 24, 19566 killed, 36 injured
3. EF2, Saint Louis, City of Saint Louis and Madison counties, Missouri and IllinoisMay 16, 20254 killed, 38 injured
4. F4, Saint Louis County, MissouriJanuary 24, 19673 killed, 216 injured
5. EF3, Saint Louis and Jefferson counties, MissouriDecember 31, 20101 killed, 6 injured
6. EF3 Defiance–Harvester tornado, MissouriDecember 10, 20211 killed, 2 injured
7. F1, Saint Louis County, MissouriMay 30, 20041 killed

1. F4, Franklin, Saint Louis, Saint Clair and Clinton counties, Missouri and IllinoisFebruary 24, 1956F4, 77.6 mi (125 km)
2. F4, Saint Louis County, MissouriJanuary 24, 1967F4, 25.0 mi (40 km)
3. F4 St. Louis tornado, Missouri and IllinoisFebruary 10, 1959F4, 23.9 mi (38 km)
4. EF4 St. Louis tornado, Missouri and IllinoisApril 22, 2011EF4, 21.3 mi (34 km)
5. EF3, Saint Charles and Saint Louis counties, MissouriMay 31, 2013EF3, 31.7 mi (51 km)
6. EF3 Defiance–Harvester tornado, MissouriDecember 10, 2021EF3, 27.3 mi (44 km)
7. F3, Saint Louis and Saint Charles counties, MissouriOctober 24, 1967F3, 21.8 mi (35 km)
8. EF3, Madison and Saint Louis counties, Missouri and IllinoisMay 31, 2013EF3, 10.6 mi (17 km)
9. F3, Saint Louis and Madison counties, Missouri and IllinoisJanuary 3, 1950F3, 9.5 mi (15 km)
10. F3, Saint Louis and Saint Charles counties, MissouriApril 7, 1980F3, 7.3 mi (12 km)

Before 1950 the record is Thomas P. Grazulis’s list of significant tornadoes: those rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. 7 of them crossed Saint Louis County, killing 88. They are not in the figures above, which are SPC's from 1950.

Significant tornadoes only

Grazulis listed tornadoes rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. Most tornadoes are weaker than F2, so the list holds a fraction of the tornadoes that happened.

The early years are thin

A tornado is on record only where somebody saw it and wrote it down. The count rises through the 1800s with settlement and newspapers, not with the weather.

Rated from accounts

Grazulis rated each tornado decades later from newspaper reports, Weather Bureau records and local histories, not from a damage survey.

The tracks are reconstructed

Tornado Archive drew each path through the places Grazulis names, most often as a straight line from the first to the last. A track can miss a town it hit, and a tornado with one named place is a point. The counties are today’s.

A separate record

SPC’s database, from 1950, counts every confirmed tornado of any strength. The two are kept apart on every page and never added together.

Warnings in force in Saint Louis CountyThe forecast for Saint Louis CountyThe live radar over Saint Louis CountyEvery county in Missouri

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. Before 1950: Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 and Significant Tornadoes 1880-1989, as digitized by Tornado Archive (Maas and others, 2024). Public domain. Counties assigned by this site from today’s NWS county lines.