Tri-State Tornado 1925

By Penny Blackburn-Reeves, Bridgette Fife,

LeAnn Hurley, Derek Janis, Anna Paz Soldan,
and Maren Provost
http://www.weather.gov/pah/1925Tornado_p

Introduction
The Great Tri-State Tornado of 1925 ripped
across three states in the midwest of the USA.
The tornado took hundreds of lives, injured
thousands, destroyed thousands of homes and
businesses, and left survivors in complete terror.
Its path cut through small communities, farming
areas and cities. It set records in duration, speed,
pressure, and death tolls in one community. This
tornado was a rare event, one not easily
forgotten.
It was so wideusually you think about a tornado, it has a funnel, and it
may be a block or two or three blocks wide. But something about a mile
wide, well it just- Eugene Porter, Murphysboro, Illinois
http://www.weather.gov/pah/1925Tornado_iq

http://www.weather.gov/images/pah/features/1925_Tornado/jchs14.jpg

Location
The Tri-State Tornado
occurred in the Midwest.
It touched down in
Missouri, tore through
Illinois, and finally
dissipated in Indiana.
http://www.tornadofacts.net/tri-state-tornado-facts.php

When
Wednesday
March 18, 1925
1:01 pm lasting until
4:30pm

http://www.tornadofacts.net/tri-state-tornado-facts.php
http://www.tornadofacts.net/tri-state-tornado-facts.php#pic07

How Big
Though the Fujita Scale
was not introduced until
1971, the Tri-Lakes
Tornado would have
been considered a
F5/EF5. The tornado
had winds reaching
close to 300 mph.
http://www.tornadofacts.net/tri-state-tornado-facts.php

http://preferredshelters.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Fujita-Scale.jpg

How Bad
The Tri-State Tornado is currently the U.S.
record holder for
longest tornado track (219 miles)
most deaths in a single tornado (695) and
most injuries in a single tornado (2027)
It crossed the three states
(Missouri, Illinois, Indiana)
thus earning the name Tri-State
It tore through thirteen counties
It crossed over and destroyed or
significantly damaged nine towns and
numerous smaller villages.
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925

Measurements
While it occurred before the way we record
tornadoes, it is considered by all accounts to
be an EF5 Tornado.
The average speed the tornado traveled was
62 miles per hour, with speeds reaching 73
mph. Wind speed rotating around the vortex
was estimated reaching 300 mph.
Eugene Porter reported the tornado to be
about a mile wide Murphysboro, IL
Length of the tornado was three and a half
hours, traveling 219 miles
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/TriState_Tornado_trackmap_%28PAH%29.jpg

Physical Features
The Tornado Frontal Positions and Tornado Damage Path

There does not seem to be any water body or landforms

that influenced the atmospheric conditions for the
formation of the Tri-State Tornado.
On a hazy day in Annapolis, Mo., a few thunderclaps
could be heard in the distance. at 1:30 p.m. a smoky fog
came and left so quickly leaving people wondering what
had happened. The only explanation they could think of
was a twister of some sort that destroyed 90 percent of
the town.
When the tornado reached Beihle, Mo. People reported
seeing a double tornado along a three mile stretch. They
were not sure whether it was a satellite tornado around
a parent tornado, or if the first tornado was dying and a
new one was forming. It is still considered one tornado.

http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925

Physical Features

continued

The meteorological conditions of this

tornado are a bit unusual. residences
from Gorham, Illinois recalled the
morning being rainy and drizzly, with
dark and gloomy skies and little wind.
Normally, places that have tornadoes
are partly sunny and windy in the
morning. Then moist air runs along the
surface and the sunshine heats it, only
to be exploded into massive
thunderheads in the afternoon.
http://www.flame.org/~cdoswell/publications/Maddox_etal_TriStateMeteor.pdf

Processes
The overall storm was an outbreak of at least 12
tornadoes that tore through many cities in multiple
states. The largest and deadliest tornado traveled
235 miles, leaving devastating damage in its wake.
The first tornado touched down in Dearing, Kansas
at 5:10am, however the following 11 tornadoes
happened in hour timespan starting at Noon and
going until 6:30pm.

Type = Tornado outbreak

Max rating = F5
Duration of all 12 tornadoes = 13 hours
Duration of biggest tornado = 3.5 hours
Total number of tornadoes = 12, ranging
from F2-F5

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado, http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925/

Source:
http://tristatetornado1925.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/3/1/11
310855/8606999_orig.jpg

Effects of the Tornado

As mentioned previously, these tornadoes inflicted
massive damage across all three states. Buildings
were completely swept away, whole communities
were wiped over the map, and city infrastructure
crumbled. The death toll quickly climbed into the
thousands, making this the deadliest and most
destructive tornado in the history of the United
States.
The surrounding areas were also terribly
destroyed. Large swaths of forest were swept
away. It eventually took several decades for
enough fauna growth to return to the area that the
tornadoes tracks could no longer be seen.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado, http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925/

Source:
http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/chrisburt/indiana.jpg

Previous & Subsequent

Events
There were not any specific events that
happened before or after that affected the
tornadoes, but there is considerable
recording of the relief efforts. One such
recording is by the Red Cross. It states that
it was difficult to assemble relief teams
across so many states and so many cities all
at once. In addition to the logistics, this was
the first time the Red Cross had to respond
to so many things all at once. It eventually
took them one year to be fully functional in
all the cities that were affected and their
operations cost more than $2.9 million (more
than $32 million today).
Sources: http://www.redcross.org/news/article/Red-Cross-Retrospective-The-1925-Tri-State-Tornado

Source:
http://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalo
g/m17340377_1925-tristate-tornado-red-cross-response707x241.jpg

Factors
In 1925 there wasnt a tornado
watch or tornado warning system
in place. People relied on word of
mouth, local newspaper, or
government mail to relay any
information about current events.
Even if there was a tornado watch or
warning system in place it wouldnt
have reached everyone in time to
evacuate or seek shelter. This lead to
a higher death toll.
Researchers found out that as the
supercell and dry line moved eastward
rapidly, the northward advance of the

http://www.weather.gov/images/pah/fea
tures/1925_Tornado/jchs15.jpg

http://www.weather.gov/pah/1925Torna
do_nvt

Interesting Scientific Facts

It had the longest track of a single tornado
in the history of recorded tornadoes
traveling a total of 219 miles.
The tornado was from one to three miles
wide.
The tornado spent 3 hours and 30 minutes
on the ground.
A farmer found a barber chair from
another town in his field. He also found a
bond that had once been in a safe, which
he later mailed back to its rightful owner.
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925

Economic Impacts
$16.5 Million in 1925 dollars which
would be $200 million in 2014 dollars
As it crossed the three states, the
tornado destroyed four towns and
wrecked more than 50% of six other
towns. The tornado wrecked
schools, farming communities,
mining cottages and pretty much
anything else in the way.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/tri-state-tornado.htm
http://www.tornadofacts.net/tri-state-tornado-facts.php

Casualties
695 Killed
2027 Injured
Illinois was hit the
hardest with 540
deaths.
There was a single
town, Murphysboro,
which had 234 deaths.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/may/21/tri-state-tornado-deadliest-of-all

Historical Impacts
"The single biggest thing that happened as a
result of the Tri-State was the increase in public
awareness about tornadoes," says Harold
Brooks of NOAA's Severe Storms Lab in Norman,
Oklahoma. "Even though the National Severe
Storms Laboratory had a ban on using the word
'tornado,' it was the beginning of local tornadospotter networks. There were no official
programs that we know of, but when you look
at old newspapers you start to see mention of
these spotters after 1925." According to Brooks,
the storm-spotter programs contributed to a
steady decline in the number of tornado deaths
in subsequent years. Today, 50 people are killed
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a196
by
tornadoes annually; at the 1925 rate, that
5/4219866/

http://www.lib.niu.edu/2001/ihy01121
0.html

Other Interesting Facts

In 1925, the word "tornado" wasn't even
in the vocabulary of the U.S. Weather
Bureau (now the National Weather
Service). The word had been banned
since 1887, when the U.S. Army Signal
Corps managed the country's weather
forecasting. Tornadoes were utterly
unpredictable, the logic went, and
forecasting them, besides being a
fruitless venture, would only spread panic
among the public. Forecasters weren't
allowed to study tornadoes, or even
acknowledge their existence in public.
In Princeton, residents saw a blackness
move across the south side of town, no
one in north Princeton knew or even
guessed that the other southern half of
the town had been destroyed until

One woman was blown back inside a restaurant as the

building collapsed. She was later pulled out alive along
with a cow that had been picked up and dropped on the
roof.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a196
5/4219866/

Eye Witness Account

Lela Hartman was 4 years old at the time of the Tri-State tornado and was visiting her
grandmother who lived about three miles west of West Frankfort, Illinois. This account was
recorded by her granddaughter when Lela was 70 years old:
as the day went on, it started lookin like rain, and cloudin up, and gettin dark, and after a
while, my dad said, You know, wed better go to the cellar! it was almost as black as night ...
And I think we just got there in time because we could hear things that you didnt hear in an
ordinary storm. And when we were ready to come out...there was a tree that had blown across
the cellar door."
"So I remember, when I came out, the first thing I saw was, by the back steps, there was a long
shuttle for a sewing machine, and it had black thread in itAnd we had a Model-T Ford that
was practically newAnd he always parked it in the barn that my grandpa had thereand it
was about 200 feet east of the house. And when I came out, that car was settin facin the north,
up near the fence that divided the yard and the barn lot. And it didnt have a top on it. The top
was gone. And on the west side was the fence that divided the two lots, and on the other side
was a huge oak tree that looked like somebody had just taken an axe and cut through that tree.
There was also one behind it that was the same way. There was one a little farther south. It
didnt touch it, so thats the reason we figured we were right on the edge. It also turned the
house on the foundation. That was a big, big ol house, and it turned it on the foundation
http://www.weather.gov/pah/1925Tornado_fha

http://www.weather.gov/images/pah/features/1925_Tornado/jchs10.jpg

Conclusion
The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 occurred in
Southwest Missouri, Southern Illinois, and
Southwest Indiana of the US Midwest.
The major cause of damage was due to
winds with maximum winds reaching 300
mph and average winds of 62 mph.
Due to the damage involved, this tornado
is rated a 5 on the EF scale.
The economic cost of this tornado is listed
at $16.5 million.
695 people lost their lives in this
devastating tornado and it left over 2,000
people injured.

http://www.weather.gov/images/pah/features/1925_Tornado/jchs06.jpg

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s393.htm

References

http://www.weather.gov/images/pah/features/1925_Tornado/jchs14.jpg
http://www.weather.gov/pah/1925Tornado_p
http://www.tornadofacts.net/tri-state-tornado-facts.php
googleearth.com
http://www.tornadofacts.net/tri-state-tornado-facts.php#pic07
http://preferredshelters.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Fujita-Scale.jpg
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Tri-State_Tornado_trackmap_%28PAH%29.jpg
http://www.flame.org/~cdoswell/publications/Maddox_etal_TriStateMeteor.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925
Sources: http://www.redcross.org/news/article/Red-Cross-Retrospective-The-1925-Tri-State-Tornado

References

continued

http://www.weather.gov/images/pah/features/1925_Tornado/jchs15.jpg
http://www.weather.gov/pah/1925Tornado_nvt
https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/briefings/2013/05/scientists-re-visit-the-tri-state-tornado
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/tri-state-tornado.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/may/21/tri-state-tornado-deadliest-of-all
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a1965/4219866
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2014/03/18/the-tri-state-tornado-of-1925
http://www.weather.gov/images/pah/features/1925_Tornado/jchs10.jpg
http://www.weather.gov/pah/1925Tornado_fha
http://www.weather.gov/images/pah/features/1925_Tornado/jchs06.jpg
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s393.htm