The Tri-State Tornado In US History

On March 18, 1925around 1300 Eastern Time a tornado touched down that still holds the record for the most devastating tornado in U.S. history. The tornado became known as the Tri-State Tornado. The tornado was named after a long journey that started in Missouri ran through Illinois, and finished its long track in Indiana. This tornado became the record holder for the longest track ever recorded with travel a distance of two hundred and nineteen miles. Even though this was not the only record that this tornado will obtain, it also holds the records for the most deaths coming in at six hundred and ninety five. This tornado also holds the record for most injuries sustained by one tornado, two thousand and twenty seven. (Hyde, 2014).

While it occurred

before the present recording devices, it is considered by all accounts to be a F5/EF5 Tornado. It spanned over and destroyed or considerably damaged nine towns and several smaller villages. The path of this tornado was once a scare on the U.S. but has been lost to the eighty nine years of growth of vegetation and progress by humans. A map, done by Wilson and Changnon in 1971, seems to provide the most likely path of the tornado. (see Module 1) The map that was previously mentioned shows why the Tri-State was so deadly. The top speed of the tornado comes in around seventy three miles per hour and had an average speed of sixty two miles per hour. Also worth mentioning is that the tornado followed a slight geographical ridge with a chain of mining towns perfectly aligned on the path.
Some of the towns that were hit by the deadliest tornado in the U.S. have almost bone chilling stories of the death and devastation. In Annapolis, Mo., “the day was quite hazy with just a few thunder clouds in the distance, and then at 1:30 p.m. the smokey fog came down from above the small Ozark hills town. It came and left so quickly that nobody knew what had really happened.” (Hyde 2014) Most of the town was caught of guard so fast they almost couldn’t understand what had happen. The only logical explanation was a twister of some sort, resulting in ninety percent of the town being destroyed. When the tornado loomed over the town of Beihle, Mo. a double tornado was reported along a three mile stretch. Researches are still unclear whether this phenomenon was a satellite tornado around a parent tornado, or if the old tornado was fading and a new one forming. Nevertheless, the damage path went on.
Some towns had strange account of destruction almost picking and choosing who it might attack or leave untouched.

The most astonishing show of power came from the next town in line, DeSoto, Il. Some trees were snapped off at knee height and stumps were uprooted out of the ground. No structure was left standing in the tornado’s path while it visited this town. But in other towns along the path of the tornado people had stories that would make one wonder how tornado’s operate. For instance there is a story of a popcorn dealer being out in the open and picked up and thrown over a block away. Yet his popcorn stand was only moved three feet and still on its wheels. Another resident of one of the towns in the path of the deadliest tornado reportedly was at his home and went to grab the door knob as it was ripped from the ground and thrown. He was left standing there with the just the door knob in his

hand.
The total time the Tri-State tornado was on the ground comes in at three hours and thirty minutes. The weather environment surrounding the tornado was also just as fascinating as the tornado itself. The survivors in the destroyed town of Gorham, Illinois recalled the morning being rainy, with dark and gloomy skies and little wind. Most storm chasers that follow severe weather found this to be out of the ordinary for producing such an extreme weather oddity. Often, areas that see tornadoes are at least partly sunny and windy in the morning, as humid air runs along the surface and the sunshine heats it up, only to be made into massive thunderheads in the evening. After some of analysis of the tornado and the conditions of the surrounding weather it was found that, the tornado ran alongside what is known as the triple point, this intersection is between the warm front, cold front, and occluded front, near the center of low pressure.(Hyde 2014)
The Tri-State tornado has also been found to be the most economically damaging tornado in history.

The damage toll came in around seventeen million dollars and was on the ground for three and half strenuous hours. (History.com) This brings the damage to around eight thousand dollars a minute in damages. If it were possible to take the same damage that was brought on that day and adjust it to the year 1997 it would be approximately 1.4 billion dollars. The Tri-State Tornado was part of a deadly outbreak of tornados that produced several deadly ones all on the same day. A total of 747 facilities and 2,298 injuries were reported, with the majority associated with the Tri-State

Tornado.
The Tri-State Tornado was also responsible for changes in the political system. The devastation produced by the tornado was a slap in the face to the government. Events such as this tornado made the U.S. recognize that it needed a tornado warning system. This resulted in the national weather warning system being created would go on to protect many lives, and still functions today. The existence of such a system, along with the accessibility of mass communication devices such as radio and TV , contributed to the steady drop of annual tornado deaths in the U.S. from an average of three hundred or more people per year in the 1920s to less than one hundred per year in the 1990s (Doswell, 1998).
The Tri-State Tornado is still the most demoralizing tornado the U.S. has ever seen due to its time on the ground and the speed with which it moved. The tornado has also brought forth the way forward in warning systems and further research to understand when the weather anomalies can possibly be predicated. Although the Tri-State tornado took several hundred lives it could be said by the actions taken from this disaster it is probable that it has saved more lives than taken.