St. Louis Tornado

Date: May 27, 1896 • Location: City of Saint Louis, United States

On May 27, 1896, a tornado caused severe damage to downtown St. Louis, Missouri, East St. Louis, Illinois, and surrounding areas. One of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history, this tornado was the most notable of a major tornado outbreak sequence across the central United States which produced several other large, long-track, violent tornadoes and continued across the eastern United States the following day. The St. Louis tornado killed at least 255 people, injured over a thousand others, and caused more than $10 million in damage in about 20 minutes. More than 5,000 people were left homeless and lost all of their possessions. The hardest-hit areas of the city were the fashionable Lafayette Square and Compton Heights neighborhoods, as well as the poorer Mill Creek Valley. It remains the third-deadliest tornado in United States history.