Living St. Louis | 1959 Tornado | KSPS PBS
Sixty years ago, a rare winter tornado cut through the heart of St. Louis.
video.ksps.orgI can help with this, but I don’t have live access to news databases in this moment. Here’s what is generally known about the St. Louis tornado outbreak of February 1959:
- The outbreak produced a violent tornado that struck the St. Louis area in the early hours of February 10, 1959. It caused widespread destruction in parts of the city and county, with the most severe damage concentrated downtown and in nearby neighborhoods.[3]
- Casualties were significant: 21 people were killed in the St. Louis region and hundreds were injured (roughly 345–354 injuries reported across sources), with property damage commonly cited around $25 million in 1959 dollars (roughly several hundred million in today’s dollars when adjusted for inflation).[2][4][3]
- A major contributing factor was limited warning capability at the time. Severe thunderstorm warnings were in effect for the storm, but forecasters did not issue a tornado warning because radar and detection methods in 1959 were not as capable as today, contributing to the high impact in the city.[3]
- The path and characteristics: the tornado traveled roughly 25 miles (about 40 km) from southwest St. Louis County through the city, crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois, with the tornado being rated as an F4 on the Fujita scale in retrospective assessments. It lasted on the ground for around 50 minutes and caused extensive urban damage, including to the St. Louis Arena roof and other structures.[4][7]
If you’d like, I can compile a brief, cited summary with exact figures from these sources, or look for more detailed timelines, meteorological notes, or first-hand accounts. I can also provide a simple, one-page chronicle or a small map-based outline of the outbreak’s path. Would you like me to focus on a concise timeline, a severity/comparison view relative to other Missouri tornado events, or a brief for educational use?