The Great Tornado of 1925

A hundred years ago, the deadliest tornado in American history originated in southern Missouri. Now known as the “Tri-State Tornado,” the storm originated near Ellington and swept through southeast Missouri before crossing into Illinois and Indiana. The devastation of the Tri-State Tornado revealed flaws in the nation’s storm forecasting and reporting system that grew out of a lack of coordination and a misplaced desire to avoid public panic, flaws that took decades to correct. This presentation uses contemporary accounts and images to re-create Missouri’s portion of “the forgotten storm.”