1925: The Tri-State Tornado

1925: The Tri-State Tornado

Author: AccuWeather March 18, 2022 Duration: 1:56
This Date in Weather History
History
Early spring often brings the most violent weather to the nation’s midsection of the entire year. High in the atmosphere, up where the jet stream is, temperatures can still be almost as cold as they are in mid-winter, yet down on the ground temperatures can soar to at times close to summer-time levels. The extreme temperature contrast, that occurs at no other time of the year, combined with turning winds from the surface up into higher levels of the air leads to the formation of severe thunderstorms and multiple tornados. On March 18, 1925 perhaps the greatest severe weather event in the last two centuries was brewing. By the time the day was over what would be known as the Tristate tornado produced the single most devastating tornado ever. The tornado began near Ellington, Missouri and averaged 62 mph in forward speed as it moved northeastward. The tornado was 1 mile wide and was on the ground for 219 miles the longest continuous tornado path ever observed. 85 farms were destroyed near Owensville, Indiana, and the entire town of Griffin, Indiana, was totally destroyed. A total of 695 deaths were reported with 2,027 injured there alone from that single tornado alone. There was $16.5 million worth of damage or almost a quarter of a billion in 2021 dollars. 11 other tornadoes the same day killed 50 more elsewhere, including 33 at a school in Desoto, IL.

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This Date in Weather History
Podcast Episodes
1948: Tornado strikes Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:35
Tornado Alley is that area in the United States that has more tornados than anywhere else in the world. Stretching from central Texas to Eastern South Dakota. Tornados are more likely in Texas and Oklahoma in the Spring,…
1912: 25" of snow falls in Kansas City, MO [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:10
It had been fairly snowy across Kansas and Missouri in the 1911-1912 winter season. By the later stages of March, Kansas City already had recorded more than 40” of snow including 15” earlier in March alone. Average snowf…
1913: The Great Flood [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:54
On March 23, 1913 the rain started falling across the Mid-west and it didn’t stop for 4 days and 4 nights. The deluge resulted in epic flooding unequaled in American history before and after. Known as the Great Flood. Th…
1936: Melting snow leads to massive flooding [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:21
The winter of 1935-1936 was a severe one with lower than normal temperatures in the eastern half of the United States. As of early March, it was estimated that the snowpack in Northern New England contained an average of…
1868: Late-March snowstorm slams East coast [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:51
March 1868 started out relatively mild across the Eastern states. The winter of 1867-1868 had been a uniformly cold winter. Life was finally starting to get back to normal in the aftermath of the Civil War in the Northea…
1948: 32.5" of heavy snow falls in Juneau, AK [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:00
Often times wave patterns develop in the high atmosphere, the strongest winds in these waves are represented by the jet stream. These waves in the air, like waves in the ocean, have high and low points over time and spac…
1958: The "Eve of Spring Snowstorm" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:00
On March 19, 1958. Rain began falling along the eastern seaboard as a weak storm moved across the Ohio Valley. As that system approached the East Coast cold air was drawn into the storm from eastern Canada. The storm exp…
1776: Weather impacts the Revolutionary War [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:16
The first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in the towns of Lexington and Concord just west of Boston in April 1775. What started as a British victory as they looked for munitions stored by local militia turned i…
1843: Snowstorm from Gulf of Mexico to Maine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:50
On March 16, 1843 one the first winter storms to be documented to sweep out of the Gulf and Mexico and impact must of the eastern part of the nation was observed. At the start of the second week of March in 1843 arctic a…
1935: "Black Blizzard" strikes Amarillo, TX [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:11
The 1930s were not kind to the Great Plains, in the midst of economic disaster caused by the Great Depression, one of the most prolonged periods of severe weather struct the region in the form of severe drought, known as…

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