90th Anniversary of America’s Deadliest Tornado

Yesterday, we examined the unusually quiet start to the 2015 tornado season. March is a month unfortunately well known for several deadly tornado outbreaks, including today’s anniversary of the deadliest American tornado ever recorded.

On March 18th, 1925, the “Tri-State Tornado” ripped through portions of eastern Missouri, far southern Illinois and Indiana, killing 695 people as the twister stayed on the ground for an unprecedented three-and-a-half hours. The tornado leveled towns and averaged a monstrous three-quarter-mile-wide track over 219 miles, also making it the longest tornado ever recorded.

Over 2000 people were injured in the twister, which touched down in southeast Missouri and trekked mostly through southern Illinois and lifted in southwest Indiana. You can find a detailed map of the twister’s harrowing and deadly trek here.

For a full listing of all of the astonishing records set in this twister, you can read more about it here at the National Weather Service Paducah, Kentucky office’s webpage.

Meteorologist Chris Bianchi