Nearly a century before tornadoes tore through parts of the Midwest and Tennessee River Valley on Friday night, the deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history ripped across almost the same region, causing unmatched devastation.

The Tri-State Tornado occurred on March 18, 1925. The tornado was a mile wide at times, and its winds reached 300 mph, putting it at the top of the Fujita scale for tornado intensity. At least 695 people were killed and more than 2,000 were injured by the deadly twister that tracked across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Other tornadoes in the outbreak also hit Tennessee and Kentucky.

The Tri-State Tornado was remarkable because its path of destruction was continuous for 219 miles as it traveled between 60 and 73 mph over three and a half hours. In just 40 minutes, the tornado devastated five towns and killed 541 people in southern Illinois.

In Murphysboro, Illinois, 1,200 buildings were destroyed and 234 people were killed, and in Gorham, Illinois, every building in town was either destroyed or badly damaged. In total, 15,000 homes were demolished by the tornado in all three states.

Tornado outbreaks are usually produced from multiple supercell thunderstorms, with each storm parenting one or more tornadoes. The damage path from the tornadoes will have gaps where a supercell and its tornado dissipate before another supercell grows and spawns an additional tornado. Thus, a family of tornadoes is typically responsible for the overall damage produced during a tornado outbreak.

However, the U.S. Weather Bureau surveyed the damage path with the Tri-State Tornado and concluded that it was continuous, without breaks or gaps. Thus, it appears a single tornado was spawned by a long-lasting supercell that tracked over 200 miles. If that conclusion is accurate, and a single tornado tracked more than 200 miles, the National Weather Service wrote it would be a “rare event – occurring only once in several hundred years.”

Due to the Tri-State Tornado’s great width, a mile at times, it was described by witnesses as “rolling fog” or “boiling clouds” on the ground. It did not resemble most tornadoes, and its appearance fooled many people until it was too late.

The tornado struck in an era when the U.S. Weather Bureau did not issue severe weather watches or warnings. And during that time, the Weather Bureau had a policy not to use the word “tornado” in weather forecasts to avoid causing panic. The official forecast for March 18, 1925, called for “rains and strong shifting winds.” So no one expected or was prepared for a tornado to occur that afternoon.

During this past weekend’s tornado outbreak, weather warnings were good, and many lives were saved as a result. It will likely take several days to determine whether one or more tornadoes were responsible.

Here are statistics about the 1925 Tri-State Tornado compiled by the National Weather Service:

• 219-mile path length
• 3/4-mile average path width (some accounts of 1 mile wide – a record width)
• 3 1/2 hours of continuous devastation
• 1:01 p.m. – tornado touched down 3 miles NNW of Ellington, Missouri
• 4:30 p.m.- tornado dissipated about 3 miles SW of Petersburg, Indiana
• 62 mph average speed
• 73 mph record speed between Gorham & Murphysboro
• F5 tornado on the Fujita scale, with winds perhaps in excess of 300 mph
• 28.87″ lowest pressure measured on a barograph trace at the Old Ben Coal Mine in West Frankfort, Illinois
• 695 deaths – a record for a single tornado
• 234 deaths in Murphysboro – a record for a single community from such a disaster
• 33 deaths at the De Soto school – a record for such a storm (only bombings and gas explosions have taken higher school tolls)
• 2,027 injuries
• 15,000 homes destroyed

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