EF1 tornado in St. Louis (c) County, Missouri

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.

As the tornado crossed from St. Louis County into the far northern portions of the City of St. Louis, there was EF-1 tree damage and minor roof and siding damage which was rated EF-0. The tornado continued to travel to the east and crossed the Mississippi River into Madison County Illinois, approximately 1.5 miles south of Interstate 270.

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.