St. Louis County R.A.C.E.S. and SKYWARN
"Taking the County by storm."
1959 St. Louis Tornado - 50 Year Anniversary
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The St. Louis 1959 Tornado
Adapted from St. Louis Tornado History articles
By Michael G. Redman
The year 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the St. Louis 1959 tornado, which occurred between 1:40 and 2:30AM, the morning of February 10th. This tornado first appeared southwest of the city near Pacific, then south of Ellisville, with damage from Warson Woods into Brentwood, then on northeast into North St. Louis where most of the damage and all the fatalities occurred. This tornadic storm was imbedded in a large area of thunderstorms and was at its largest in St. Louis, rated an F4 on the Fujita scale and a path of 27 miles, ending in Madison County, Illinois.
This storm took almost the same path as the 1927 storm with most damage through parts of north St. Louis. An alert radar operator at the Lambert Airport Weather Bureau noted the now-familiar “hook echo”, but few heard any broadcast warnings due to the time of day. Warnings in 1959 consisted mainly of telephone calls to local civil defense officials. Oddly enough, the Ground Observer Corps, a volunteer network of observers whose primary function was to search the skies for enemy aircraft, was disbanded just ten days prior to the tornado. In the latter years of this program, observers were used to watch for tornadoes. This was before the days of the “Tornado Watch”.
Reports of this storm were received from areas to the southwest, but without an organized spotter effort, there were no formal reports and no organized warnings. Twenty-one were killed and 345 injured, with property loss at $10 to $12 million. AM radio reports shortly after the storm indicated that a tornado had hit the city, but the extent of the damage, injuries, and fatalities was not known until daybreak.
As a result of this tornado several actions were taken: 1) Outdoor warning sirens were to be used to warn of approaching tornadoes, 2) Schools began tornado drills and related safety efforts, 3) A ‘state-of-the-art’ radar system was installed at the Lambert Airport Weather Bureau office [the WSR-57], and 4) St. Louis Public school FM radio station KSLH (91.5 Mhz.) began the broadcast of emergency weather information to city schools as needed, interrupting instructional programming when necessary. School principals were required to monitor a radio on this station, continuously, whenever the weather was threatening or a weather forecast of “A chance of a tornado or two” was issued. Every city school had these radios so they were already in place (typically Newcomb or Freed-Eisemann receivers). Transmissions came from a tower and radio station in a converted school building at 1517 Theresa Avenue, the city school system’s audio-visual building.
The author was a small child, residing about 2 miles north and northwest of the tornado’s path. He did not see it, but certainly heard it as his mother rushed the family downstairs – herself a survivor of the St. Louis 1927 tornado. Several days later they drove to the area of the arena to observe the damage which was indeed spectacular. This incident piqued the author’s interest in weather and tornadoes and has led to his involvement in SKYWARN and related programs today.
©2009 M. G. Redman
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Path of the tornado
Northwest corner of Brentwood Blvd and Manchester Rd.
The weather map prior to the tornado
Looking west toward the remains of the KTVI television tower, Hampton and Oakland
Inside the arena looking out
Thanks go to Michael G. Redman for the use of the following clippings and photos from his personal collection.
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