The "Great Tri-state Tornado"

Four days ago was the 82nd anniversary of a storm simply known as the “Great Tri-state Tornado”. The picture of the destroyed town was taken in Griffin, Indiana and the picture of the damaged school building was taken in Murphysboro, Illinois.

The 'Great Tri-state Tornado' of March 18, 1925 tore a 219 mile path through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, resulting in the greatest US tornado disaster ever. 695 people were killed, the largest death toll from a single tornado in US history. 234 deaths occurred at Murphysboro, Illinois, the biggest death toll within a single city from a tornado on record. At one point, the tornado was moving at a record setting 73 mph. This tornado was easily an F5 on the Fujita scale with winds exceeding 260 mph. Instead of occurring along a cold front or in a squall line, the tornado was closely associated with a surface low pressure area. In all respects, it was a remarkable tornado and stands alone in its own class of tornadic events.

It’s been a quiet March thus far across our area. There is a trough that’s digging a bit out in the Pacific. This is slated to move through our area in the Wednesday-Thursday time frame of next week. It is something that has been showing up with some consistency, though we still need the pesky closed-low that is now over the Gulf of California to push through before this next system. Once this happens, hopefully we will be able to put a little more merit in the extended.

Posted by Ted Zarras at 5:28 PM