On This Day in History -- The Great 1896 St. Louis Tornado | WeatherBug
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On This Day in History -- The Great 1896 St. Louis Tornado

May 27, 2022
By WeatherBug Meteorologist Matt Mehallow

On Wednesday, May 27, 1896, a historic, powerful tornado swept through St. Louis. Known as the Great Cyclone, the tornado cut a ten-mile swath of destruction across the city and surrounding areas.

During the late 19th century, St. Louis experienced rapid population growth allowing it to become the fourth largest city in the United States after New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. There were three tornadoes recorded in this time, two in the early 1870s and one in 1890, but none would compare to the level of destruction that unfolded late in the afternoon on May 27.

The trail of destruction began when a thunderstorm spawned a tornado about 6 miles west of the Eads Bridge in St. Louis, which then passed through the core of the central downtown area. The tornado collapsed and swept away parts of houses, factories, saloons, hospitals, mills, railroad yards and churches. The 36-acre Lafayette Park became a wasteland of stripped trees and stumps. Heavy iron fences, which surrounded places like Lafayette Park, were twisted and tangled until they were almost unrecognizable. The tornado also left countless families homeless as it leveled entire neighborhoods block after block.

From there, the tornado crossed the Mississippi River, battering the Eads Bridge, which had been built tornado proofed after the 1871 event in the same place. The tornado continued into East St. Louis, where it did the worst of its damage. Hardly a house or building remained standing, with everything along the river completely blown away.

By the end of the storm, close to 10,000 buildings were heavily damaged or destroyed and in less than a half an hour, 255 people were killed and thousands more injured. According to the Missouri Weather Bureau Report for May 1896, the tornado caused as much as $25 million in damages, approximately $700 million today.

After a few weeks, the city began rebuilding and just eight years later, the once-again bustling city of St. Louis, Missouri, hosted the 1904 World’s Fair.

This tornado was part of one of the more notable major tornado outbreaks across central and eastern United States in May of 1896. It is also one of four tornadoes (1871, 1927, 1959) that have ripped through the central business district of St. Louis, making St. Louis the scene of historically destructive and deadly tornadoes.

Sources: ncdc.noaa.gov, ncei.noaa.gov, tornadoproject.com