ST. LOUIS — As the city of St. Louis continues to pick up the pieces of what Friday’s tornado left behind, for residents who live in St. Louis City proper, it’s rare to experience this kind of deadly tornadic activity.
On Friday, an EF-3 tornado swept through eight miles in St. Louis City from Clayton through Forest Park and into North St. Louis. The tornado killed five and left behind uprooted trees, downed power lines, leveled structures, and many injured storm victims.
The last deadly tornado St. Louis City proper experienced was on Feb. 10, 1959, when an EF-5 tornado killed 11 people in the city and 10 people in St. Louis County. The tornado also caused over 300 injuries.
After 1959, the city of St. Louis did see an EF-0 tornado skim the northern part of the area in 2013, but the tornado was primarily tracked over St. Louis County.
Forbes even compared Friday’s tornado to the Great St. Louis Tornado of 1896, which is still ranked as the deadliest tornado in St. Louis history and third-deadliest in U.S. history.
The tornado killed 255 people and injured 1,000 others on May 27, 1896, when it cut a 10-mile path through St. Louis City. According to the NOAA, the 1896 tornado would have most likely been rated as an EF-4 tornado today with winds between 168 and 199 miles per hour.