St. Louis tornado outbreak of February 1959

Early on February 7, a low-pressure system formed over Southeastern Oregon. This low strengthened as it moved slowly southeastward over the next two days before bottoming out at 992 mbars over Southwestern Colorado. It then accelerated tremendously as it turned eastward and then east-northeastward across the Central Plains. Meanwhile, a trough of low-pressure would move out of the Southwest, which caused an unusual surge of warm weather to be drawn northward into the Midwest in Early-February with temperatures climbing into the 60s across the region. The low-pressure system entered the area on February 9, spawning multiple clusters of severe thunderstorms over the Southern Great Plains. These storms would remain severe and tornadic throughout the overnight into the next day as the area of low-pressure moved quickly through the Great Lakes region. ==Confirmed tornadoes==

February 9 event February 10 event Crescent–St. Louis, Missouri/Madison, Illinois This fast-moving and violent F4 tornado first touched down in the southwest corner of St. Louis County in Crescent, Missouri, just southwest of Sherman. The tornado first caused some minor damage to homes in Sherman as it moved northeastward. It continued to cause minor damage to homes and other buildings as it moved through rural areas towards St. Louis. As the tornado entered Warson Woods, it began to intensify sharply and damage became much more severe as it reached F2 status. The tornado then entered St. Louis City, devastating the area. It first damaged dozens of buildings and homes in the neighborhoods of Franz Park, Hi-Pointe, and Clayton-Tamm in Northern Benton before tearing part of the roof off the St. Louis Arena and blowing down the KTVI-2 television tower in Northern Gratiot. It then reached its peak intensity as it tore through Forest Park and into the Central West End, Vandeventer, Covenant Blu-Grand Center, and JeffVanderLou neighborhoods in northwest St. Louis, where widespread F3 and isolated F4 damage was observed. Many brick apartments and family restaurants at Olive Street and Boyle Avenue suffered major damage. A block away, multiple homes were heavily damaged or destroyed along Whitter Street, including some that were leveled. A destroyed three-story house at the corner of Whitter Street and Delmar Boulevard saw its lower floors completely collapse, causing the attic to completely cave in on the structure while remaining largely intact. Eight people were killed at this location. More buildings were wrecked along Sarah St. and an apartment building along North Prairie Ave. lost its entire rear wall, leaving it open like a doll house. The tornado continued to wreak havoc as it swept through the St. Louis Place, Hyde Park, and Near North Riverfront neighborhoods. Numerous other buildings along with automobiles, trees, and power lines were damaged or destroyed with debris littering the streets and hundreds of people trapped in the rubble of the collapsed buildings. Throughout St. Louis, the tornado killed 11, injured 175, and caused $25 million in damage. While a severe thunderstorm warning had been in effect for this storm, forecasters did not see enough evidence on their radar to issue a tornado warning, especially since this was during the Winter months, which proved to be a fatal mistake. ==Non-tornadic impacts==

The massive storm system bought widespread impacts to much of the Central United States with severe and winter weather affecting areas from New Mexico northeastward into the Great Lakes. February 9 saw a peak hail report of east of Nowata, Oklahoma while February 10 saw a peak wind gust of east of Campbell, Missouri. Snow, sleet, and freezing rain impacted all of Iowa between February 9–15. Widespread damage occurred, especially in areas that had a glaze of ice from the freezing rain, where power and telephone lines were downed. Hundred of personal injury and property damage falls and traffic accidents were reported, causing one fatality and 70 injuries. The system also caused 120 injuries in Michigan, two injuries in Oklahoma, five injuries in Texas, and a fatality in Indiana. ==Aftermath==

The St. Louis F4 tornado brought about a new inquiry for tornado sirens. Despite the casualties and damages caused by the tornado, the Weather Bureau stood by their decision to not issue a tornado warning. However, even if one had been issued, the city's defense sirens would not have sounded because they were to be used to alert the area of air-raid strikes, not for weather warnings (this was very common during the Cold War era). It was not until another deadly outbreak in 1967 produced another F4 tornado that killed three in the same general area that tornado sirens were finally installed. The F3 tornado in Southern Highland County, Ohio injured and killed multiple farm animals and downed over 100 power lines in Sugar Tree Ridge alone. In Belfast, the Belfast School was damaged so severely that school officials dismissed all of the classes immediately. The school also sustained extensive roof damage, and with more bad weather forecasted to hit the area in the days following the disaster, emergency workers worked late into the night that Tuesday to make hurried repairs on the buildings. ==See also==