EF4 Tornado — St. Louis, Missouri

2011-04-22 · near Vigus, St. Louis, Missouri

Event narrative

During the evening of Friday April 22nd, an intense supercell thunderstorm produced a long-track tornado which tore a path of destruction from west to east across the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, from St. Louis County Missouri eastward through the far northern portions of the City of St. Louis, then across the Mississippi River into Madison County Illinois. The tornado reached a maximum intensity of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale as it tracked through the community of Bridgeton, just west of Lambert St. Louis International Airport, in St. Louis County. The total path length was 21.3 miles, with a width of up to half a mile.

The tornado initially touched down along the northern edge of Creve Coeur Lake at approximately 759 pm. It tracked nearly due east at about 40 mph, and intensified as it entered Maryland Heights. There it produced up to EF3 damage to many homes and businesses with a damage swath of 200 to 400 yards wide. Damage continued eastward in an unbroken track, crossing I-270 about 1 mile south of I-70. The tornado reached peak intensity of EF4 as it devastated the community of Bridgeton along Old St. Charles Road. From there the tornado paralleled Interstate 70 through the community of St. Ann, and then took aim directly on Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Many of the large windows in the main terminal building were blown out or damaged by flying debris and a large section of roof was peeled from Concourse C. Although the vast majority of people were evacuated to lower levels and to interior rooms before the tornado hit, five people were treated and released from area hospitals for injuries due to flying debris. The airport was closed due to the extensive damage. Damage at the airport was estimated to be between $35 to 40 million.

The tornado exited Lambert-St. Louis International Airport crossing near the McDonnell Boulevard/Harmon Lane intersection. It then moved into Berkeley where it crossed Interstate 170 between Airport Road and Scudder Avenue. Extensive damage was noted along Fourth Avenue, especially at the Garfield Avenue and Hancock Avenue intersections where a vacant house and several homes lost their entire roof structure. The greatest damage in this neighborhood was rated EF2. The tornado continued to the northeast through neighborhoods south of Airport Road producing significant tree damage including many large trees falling on homes. The tornado then crossed Airport Road near Abston Street. The tornado crossed North Florissant Road where it caused extensive roof damage to the Newger Materials building and the First Baptist Church of Ferguson. Across the road, a Little Caesars Restaurant lost its entire roof. Damage to these structures was rated EF1. The tornado then continued through neighborhoods along and just the north of Hereford Avenue/Chambers Road where it continued to cause extensive tree damage as well as additional partial roof damage to homes along the path toward West Florissant Road. Also along this part of its path, it partially removed the roof at the Griffith Elementary School which was rated as EF1. This is also where the tornado widened to one quarter of a mile with damage noted to trees and some homes on both sides of Chambers Road. Along the entire path from Berkeley to Dellwood, damage varied in intensity from EF1 to low end EF2 with a maximum estimated wind speed of 120 mph, and included numerous snapped power poles in addition to the extensive number of snapped and downed trees.

EF2 damage was uncovered at three different locations east of Dellwood. One area was located one quarter mile south of Chambers Road on Halls Ferry Road where four large utility poles were snapped. The second area of EF2 damage was located a quarter of a mile south of Chambers Road along Bellefontaine Road where significant tree damage occurred. The last area of damage was located in Bellefontaine Neighbors just south of Chambers Road on La Roux Court. Roofs were removed from three homes at this location, while other homes sustained varying degrees of damage. The width of the damage area varies from 100 yards to four tenths of a mile with the widest area of damage east of Halls Ferry and south of Chambers Road.

The tornadic damage continued as the tornado traveled eastward south of Chambers road, crossing into the far northern portions of the city of St. Louis. The majority of the damage in this area was rated EF1 due to fallen trees. Some of these trees fell on homes while a few others fell through homes causing damage not directly relating to the intensity of the wind within the tornado.

Overall, in St. Louis County, 233 structures (homes and businesses) sustained major damage, 776 structures sustained moderate damage, and 1,487 structures sustained minor damage. Estimated dollar amount damage is $250 million.

Wider weather episode

A strong cold front moved through region. With plenty of moisture, instability and decent low level shear, severe storms developed along the Interstate 70 corridor in Missouri and Illinois. Numerous reports of large hail and 5 tornadoes occurred with this event. One of the tornadoes was a long track one that moved through the St. Louis metropolitan area with it being rated an EF4, with only a few minor injuries and no deaths. Also, quite a bit of rain fell during this event and caused flash flooding. The flash flooding persisted for several days as additional rounds of heavy rain fell over the same region through the 26th of April.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.7364, -90.4863)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 317910. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.