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ST. LOUIS, MO. -- UPDATED: April 26 at 3:02 p.m.
Two tornadic supercells crossed the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area during the evening hours of Friday, April 22, 2011.
Many reports of large hail and damage were reported. Some of the most intense damage occurred with an EF4 tornado that ripped a 21 mile path of destruction across St. Louis County in Missouri and Madison County in Illinois. Municipalities that were affected include Maryland Heights, Bridgeton, St. Ann, Edmundson, Lambert St. Louis International Airport (City of St. Louis), Berkeley, Ferguson, Pontoon Beach/Granite City. Remarkably, there were no fatalities with this event. This can be attributed to the 34 minutes of tornado warning lead time, wall to wall media coverage, and the actions of those in the direct path of the tornado.
Five tornadoes were confirmed so far from this event. The northern most supercell produced three tornadoes, two of which were long-tracked. The first touchdown was near New Melle and was rated EF1, the second was a long-track tornado that was rated EF4 and affected St. Louis and Madison Counties as well as the extreme northern tip of St. Louis City, and the third was a long-track EF2 tornado that affected Madison, Clinton, and Bond Counties. The southern supercell produced two short-track tornadoes. The first was rated EF2 in Monroe County and the second was rated EF1 in St. Clair County.
The EF4 tornado is the strongest tornado that has occurred in St. Louis County for 44 years. You have to go back to January 24,1967 to find a tornado that was as strong. In fact, the tornado paths are very similar.
Information courtesy of the National Weather Service.
BRIDGETON, Mo. (AP) — The St. Louis area's most powerful tornado in 44 years rips into an airport and through a densely populated suburban area, destroying up to 100 homes, shattering hundreds of panes of glass at the main terminal and blowing a shuttle bus on top of a roof. Yet no one is killed, or even seriously hurt, and the airport reopens less than 24 hours later. How?
Early warnings, good timing and common sense all helped prevent a tragedy Friday night. But on Easter Sunday, many of those cleaning up the mess also thanked a higher power. "I don't know why God decided to spare our lives but I'm thankful for it," Joni Bellinger, children's minister at hard-hit Ferguson Christian Church, said Sunday. Lambert Airport reopened for arriving flights Saturday night, and departing flights began Sunday morning. Still, dozens of flights have been canceled, the airport's Concourse C is still closed and complete repairs could take up to two months. The tornado peaked at an EF-4 level, second-highest on the Enhanced Fujita scale, packing winds of up to 200 mph, National Weather Service meteorologist Wes Browning said. It was the most powerful twister in metropolitan St. Louis since 1967 — and eerily, it followed a path similar to that of the earlier tornado
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