On the afternoon of May 16, 2025, an intense, extremely large, and destructive tornado tracked for more than 12 miles (19 km) through urban areas of Greater St. Louis, including Greater Ville and Fountain Park, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The massive and rainwrapped EF3 tornado, which was 1.8 mi (2.9 km) wide at its largest, inflicted widespread destruction across St. Louis, Missouri. Upon crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois, the tornado weakened rapidly and dissipated just north of downtown Granite City. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) called the residential damage the largest-scale the organization had surveyed since the 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Federal aid has been requested but is pending acceptance. Volunteer engineers have been surveying homes throughout the city. Damage estimate put the damage caused by the tornado at $1.6 billion, among the highest figures for an individual tornado on record. The tornado was the first deadly tornado in St. Louis since 1959, and the largest ever in the region.
The Storm Prediction Center outlined a moderate (4/5) risk of severe weather over much of the middle Mississippi and lower Ohio valleys in the Midwestern United States on May 16 as a strong upper-level trough was forecasted to be over the Upper Midwest. St. Louis was included in the northern area of the moderate risk, driven by the threat of severe hail and damaging winds; though the area of greatest tornadic potential was believed to lie further south and southeast. Following the remnants of a severe weather system the previous day, a cold front was forecast to move through much of the Midwest and through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys that evening. Strong mid-level flow and shear values would contribute to ideal conditions for the development of storms, potentially developing into supercells, over eastern and southern Missouri that evening.
Forecasters at the St. Louis National Weather Service office were monitoring the potential for severe weather across the region early in the morning. An area forecast discussion was issued shortly before 3 a.m. CDT, discussing the implications of environmental parameters and model guidance for that afternoon. Models had been showing that the greatest risk of severe weather across the region would exist between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. CDT. While the specifics of when and where storms would develop were unclear, model runs showed that the convective environment overseen by the St. Louis office would consist of high levels of convective instability in excess of 3,000 J/kg, with matching lapse rates of 7.5–8.5 degrees Celsius per kilometer and shear values of 50–60 knots ahead of the cold front. The primary hazards outlined at the time were large hail above 2 in (5.1 cm) in diameter, while the risk of both strong downburst wind gusts potentially stronger than 80 mph (130 km/h), and tornadoes, some potentially being strong, was also recognized by forecasters.
Shortly before noon, the Storm Prediction Center issued a mesoscale discussion concerning the development of storms over southwestern Missouri and eastern Arkansas. These storms existed ahead of the cold front and were expected to develop into supercells with time, whereas the environment ahead of the front was developing extreme instability. Forecasters believed that storm coverage would expand over the rest of Missouri, as well as parts of Arkansas and Illinois, as the day progressed. Also around this time, a tornado watch was issued across much of Missouri, including St. Louis, with the underlying environment expected to favor supercells throughout the day and a hazard of potentially intense tornadoes existed throughout the region.
At 2:08 p.m., the warm front had reached St. Louis, and more supercells had developed across the line ahead of the cold front and dry line. Southerly winds had brought dew points in St. Louis up to 68 °F (20 °C) at this time. The environment across and ahead of the line of supercells was conducive to the threat of large hail potentially above 4 in (10 cm) in diameter, and low-level helicity would support the threat for tornadoes, although these were expected to be further south over southeastern Missouri and neighboring parts of Illinois and Kentucky. A tornado warning was issued for St. Louis and surrounding areas by the National Weather Service St. Louis, Missouri at 2:34 pm CDT, as a storm over St. Ann and Overland had attained tornadic rotation. Five minutes later at 2:39 pm CDT, the tornado touched down.
Track across St. Louis, Missouri
The tornado first touched down at 2:39 pm CDT in Clayton just east of I-170 in St. Louis County, Missouri. Upon touching down, the tornado immediately reached EF2 intensity as it moved east-southeastward, causing considerable roof damage to an apartment building. It then passed through Clayton at EF1 strength, damaging apartment buildings, homes, and low-rise buildings, uprooting trees, and snapping tree branches. Turning east-northeastward, the tornado crossed over the Fontbonne University campus, inflicting EF1 damage to multiple buildings on the campus and snapping trees; one area of EF2 damage was noted, with some power poles that were snapped. East of the campus, the tornado caused widespread EF1 damage as it snapped or uprooted trees and caused minor to major roof damage to homes. MetroLink, St. Louis' rail transportation network, suffered damage to overhead power systems between Forest Park–DeBaliviere station and Brentwood I-64 station as the tornado moved over the majority of this segment. The tornado then entered the City of St. Louis and began to rapidly grow in size, snapping more trees in the Wydown/Skinker neighborhood before causing additional widespread tree damage as it clipped Forest Park and the Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood. The tornado again reached EF2 intensity as it struck DeBaliviere Place. It heavily damaged multiple apartment buildings, including two that received high-end EF2 damage, damaged homes, low-rise and mid-rise buildings, shattered windows, and snapped and uprooted numerous trees. The tornado then briefly reached its peak intensity of mid-range EF3 for the first time and reached its maximum width 1.8 mi (2.9 km) as it impacted the Academy neighborhood, leaving one home with only interior walls left standing while an abandoned home nearby was leveled and swept away. Additional homes, churches, mid-rise buildings, traffic lights, power poles, and trees were heavily damaged as well as the tornado moved into the Fountain Park neighborhood.
The tornado then regained EF3 intensity again on the north side of Fountain Park, partially destroying a strip mall and flattening a brick townhouse. Elsewhere across this area, as well as the adjacent neighborhoods of Lewis Place and Kingsway East, the tornado inflicted widespread EF2-EF3 damage. Abandoned townhouses were leveled and swept away, several businesses and brick townhouses had walls and windows blown out and roofs partially and completely removed, and there was widespread damage to trees, power poles, and traffic lights. Part of the Centennial Christian Church, with three people inside, collapsed; although everyone was rescued, one person later died from their injuries. Other churches had windows shattered and exterior damage as well. A church nearby had its roof partially removed, and its steeple knocked off. Minor damage was also noted in The Ville neighborhood.
The tornado then narrowed somewhat, but again intensified to its peak intensity of mid-range EF3 for the second time as it moved through the Greater Ville neighborhood, flattening multiple brick townhouses along North Newstead Avenue. Beyond this point, the tornado weakened, but continued to cause widespread EF2 damage with other brick townhouses and homes collapsing or heavily damaged, with roofs removed and exterior walls knocked down; many trees were damaged, and power poles were snapped as well. Around this time, the tornado warning for the area was upgraded to a Particularly dangerous situation tornado warning due to radar confirming the presence of debris being lofted by the tornado. Along Natural Bridge Avenue (Route 115), a tall flagpole was heavily damaged before the tornado moved into the O'Fallon neighborhood just west of Fairground Park at EF2 intensity. More brick townhouses, other homes, businesses, and churches were heavily damaged and had shattered windows, and power poles and trees were snapped. This included some brick townhouses that collapsed at O'Fallon Park. The tornado continued to narrow, but remained at EF2 intensity as it crossed I-70 into the North Riverfront neighborhood, damaging multiple warehouses and snapping power poles as it moved through an industrial area in a train yard along BNSF Railway's Hannibal Subdivision before crossing the Mississippi River into Madison County, Illinois. The tornado then began to quickly narrow and weakened to EF1 intensity as it reached the Mississippi River.