EF2 tornado in Madison County, Illinois

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 crossed the Mississippi River from the far northern portions of the City of St. Louis into Madison County Illinois approximately 1.5 miles south of Interstate 270 . The tornado continued east to half a mile north of the intersection of Illinois Route 203 and Pontoon Road. Damage east of this intersection included uprooted and snapped trees and three homes had roofs removed. At least one hundred homes were damaged in the area. The maximum damage found was in a neighborhood along Bern and Dawn Avenues. The tornadic damage then curved southeast and ended near the intersection of Alton Street and Pontoon Road. Damage width over this area varied from 50 to 150 yards with a path length of 5.1 miles. The damage east of Illinois Route 203 was rated low-end EF2. The highest wind speeds associated with the EF2 damage were approximately 120 mph.

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.