Contemplating Monsters

In the afternoon of March 18, 1925 a monster was born. 

               The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 began as what is universally described as a “smoky fog” touching down three miles northwest of Ellington, Missouri.  This EF5 tornado traveled 217 miles across Missouri, Southern Illinois and Indiana, killing 619 people.  In each state at least one community (Biehle, MO; Gorham, IL; Griffin, IN) experienced 100% destruction. 

               Some of the staggering death toll is easily attributable to the lack of communication among rural Midwest communities in the midst of the 1920’s.  Other reasons are unique to this tornado.  The tornado maintained some 65 to 70 miles per hour for the entire 217 miles and 3 ½ hour of its wretched life.  Geography worked against the victims as well.  The Tri-State followed the same topographical ridge as did the small, poor mining communities that became its victims. 

               The first town fell at 1:30 p.m.  There had been some distant, indistinct thunder, and then a hazy fog descended from an Ozark hill top.  The “fog” then blew through the town of Annapolis, Missouri and destroyed 90% of it, with not a single person seeing the funnel cloud.  By the time the storm approached Biehle two funnels were sighted.  The dual tornadoes made quick work of Biehle, leaving not one building standing. 

               Notching a second state on its hilt, the Tri-State crossed the Mississippi River and attacked Gorham, Illinois.  This town of 500 people lost 37 souls with another 250 injured.  Again the town was a complete loss.  The tornado then tracked in a straight, northeasterly track toward Murphysboro where the funnel cloud was described as being a mile wide.  Murphysboro lost 234 people. 

               In DeSoto, Illinois trees snapped off at knee height and stumps were torn from the ground.  Of the 69 people killed in DeSoto, 33 were lost in a school.  In West Frankfort most of the 148 deaths were women and children because the men were underground in the mines. 

               Completing the third state of destruction, the tornado again cloaked itself in what locals called simply a “darkness.”  The town of Griffin was totally destroyed, as was most of south Princeton.   The Tri-State tornado, finally satisfied with its life’s work, blew itself out southwest of Petersburg, IN. 

               Monsters do not spring, full blown, from benign tissue.  Monsters have to be grown.  Some of the circumstances creating the Tri-State make sense, others do not.  The winter and spring of 1925 were unusually warm and dry throughout the Central US.  Yet the morning of the tornado was rainy, gray and overcast.  Tornadoes come from sunny, breezy skies as moist air runs along the surface of the land and is heated to form thunderous storms.  The heavy, drizzly skies that the residents of Gorham recall were not tornado skies.  What was happening?

               The Tri-State Tornado was formed at what is called “triple point.”  That is the meeting point of warm, cold and occluded fronts.  Triple point is the center of a low pressure system and nature abhors a vacuum.  Low pressure areas find themselves filled forcefully by air from surrounding high pressure systems, like pouring a bucket of water down a small drain.

               This remarkable weather convergence spawned more tornadoes that the Tri-State monster. Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Kansas saw tornadoes that day.  From Ohio to Louisiana violent weather racked the Midwest in some destructive form or another.  Total loss of life neared 1000 people. 

               Nature created the Tri-State Tornado in response to laws of physics.  Man creates its own monsters, in response to no laws at all. 

               Keep the faith.