At Least 7 Tornadoes Ripped Through Missouri and Illinois Saturday

That number might increase as experts examine damage and debris

By Jaime Lees

Apr 17, 2023 at 12:56 pm

As bad weather-seasoned Midwesterners, we usually take a Tornado Warning as a sign that it’s time to go out to the garage, open the garage door, crack a cold one and watch as the wind blows through.

But not last weekend.

Last weekend, even those of us who don’t normally fear bad weather were grabbing our pets and kids and heading to our basements as the violent storm front moved through. Something about those whipping winds and freaky green skies made all of us deeply uneasy. It looks like we were right to panic, too, because experts say at least seven tornadoes ripped through Missouri and Illinois on Saturday evening.

The US National Weather Service of St. Louis is reporting that the seven tornadoes were in Fenton, Hillsboro, Pevely, Valmeyer, Maeystown-Hecker, Swansea and Belleville. It has crews out now to survey the damage done to other areas to try to figure out if there were tornadoes there, too. The spots being examined currently are Sullivan, Collinsville, St. Jacob and south St. Louis city.

Tornadoes are measured on something called the Enhanced Fujita Scale (a.k.a. EF Scale). Tornadoes are given a score of zero to five, with five being the most severe (gusts of at least three seconds that are 200 mph or higher) and zero being the least severe (gusts of at least three seconds that are between 65 and 85 miles per hour).

So far, all of the tornadoes recorded on Saturday have all been labeled EF-0 or EF-1, but they still did plenty of damage.

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About The Author

Jaime Lees

Jaime Lees is the digital content editor for the Riverfront Times.

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