The May 16, 2025 St. Louis tornado: the record, and what it means for sheltering

Last updated: October 10, 2026. This page follows the official record — the National Weather Service's surveys, NOAA's storm database and City of St. Louis releases — and is updated as recovery policy changes.

On the afternoon of May 16, 2025, a tornado rated EF3, with peak winds estimated at 152 mph, tracked from Clayton across the City of St. Louis and over the Mississippi River into Granite City, Illinois. NOAA's storm database records four deaths from the tornado and a fifth from the same storm's winds, 38 injuries, and $1.6 billion in property damage; city officials said about 5,000 homes were damaged. In May 2026 the National Weather Service finished a re-survey that found the tornado was 1.8 miles wide at its widest — the widest tornado in the region since record-keeping began in 1950. The City's outdoor sirens did not sound before the tornado. This page sets out what is known and what it means for anyone deciding how to shelter.

The path

The National Weather Service's event summary traces the tornado through, in order:

• Clayton and Richmond Heights, near Fontbonne University and Big Bend Boulevard.
• Forest Park and Washington University, crossing near the Zoo and along Pershing and Lindell.
• North St. Louis neighborhoods including Fountain Park and Kingsway, around Page, Kingshighway and Newstead, and the O'Fallon Park area near Penrose, Harris and Hall Street.
• Across the Mississippi into Illinois near Venice, through Granite City. (The preliminary survey also noted damage in Pontoon Beach.)

The City's later demolition program lists properties in Greater Ville, The Ville, Kingsway East, Academy/Sherman Park, Fountain Park, Lewis Place, Vandeventer, O'Fallon and Penrose — a measure of where the heaviest damage to homes fell.

What the surveys found

Preliminary survey (May 2025). The NWS's first survey described a single tornado from Richmond Heights to Edwardsville, Illinois, on the ground from 2:41 to 3:06 p.m., 22.77 miles long and up to 1,750 yards wide, rated EF3 at 152 mph.

Revised survey (May 2026). A year later, after adding more than 10,000 damage points, the NWS revised its analysis:

• The tornado was 1.8 miles (3,168 yards) wide — the widest in the St. Louis region since 1950. An NWS meteorologist called it the widest tornado on record in the St. Louis area and in Missouri.
• What had been treated as one track was two tornadoes: the EF3 through St. Louis County, the City and far-western Madison County, ending outside Granite City; and a separate EF1 (107 mph) that ended just east of SIU Edwardsville.
• Including non-tornadic wind, the damage swath exceeded 2 miles.

NOAA's storm database lists four deaths and 38 injuries from the tornado and $1.6 billion in property damage; its narrative notes a fifth death from strong winds from the same storm.

The City reported that more than 7,000 structures in the impact area were assessed and nearly 2,500 searched in the first 24 hours. City officials put damage at about 5,000 homes. About 115,000 customers lost power.

The sirens

The City of St. Louis's outdoor warning sirens did not sound before the tornado.

An independent review, completed by the law firm Carmody MacDonald and released by the City in August 2025, described "multiple cascading failures." Staff of the City Emergency Management Agency were at an off-site seminar; there was confusion over who had primary responsibility for activating the sirens; more than a third of the sirens were not working; and the City's emergency operations plan had not been updated since 2003. The report also said that "nothing we have discovered suggests that the lack of staff, funding, and resources explains the failures."

What changed:

• May 20, 2025 — Executive Order 83 clarified siren activation and made the St. Louis Fire Department a direct recipient of National Weather Service alerts, with responsibility for activation.
• April 2, 2026 — the City announced that "sirens are completely automated to trigger when a tornado warning is issued for St. Louis," and described a unified command framework under Executive Order 93.
• The City operates 60 sirens and tests them on the first Monday of each month at 11 a.m. It describes them as an outdoor system "meant to direct residents and visitors to go indoors."

What it means for you: sirens are one alert among several, built to warn people outdoors. Indoors, at night, or with the TV off, you need a phone alert and a weather radio. Our household tornado plan covers alert sign-ups for the City, the counties and the Metro East.

Recovery and rebuilding

• Federal declaration: FEMA-4877-DR, declared June 9, 2025, for Individual and Public Assistance in the City of St. Louis plus St. Louis and Scott counties.
• City executive orders declared the emergency (EO 81), set a curfew (EO 82), waived the 25% insurance holdback (EO 85), created a Recovery Office in the Mayor's Office (EO 89), and — on August 25, 2025 — Executive Order 90 directed the Building Commissioner and Cultural Resources Office to expedite permits for tornado-damaged property and housing for displaced residents, with flexibility in historic districts for one year and permit and approval extensions for three years.
• Demolition: in May 2026 the City and state began a Private Property Debris Removal program — FEMA covers 75%, with state funding for the rest — and a separate $10 million state-funded pilot for properties FEMA won't cover; the pilot is to cover demolition of about 120 properties.
• STL Recovers is the City's recovery hub, with current programs and news.

What the tornado teaches about sheltering

We're careful here: the official surveys describe the tornado, not the experience of each household that sheltered from it, and we won't invent that. Four lessons follow from the record itself.

1. A wide tornado affects a large area at once. At 1.8 miles across, it put many blocks under damaging winds at the same time, so every household in that area needed a place to go.

2. Warnings can fail. The sirens didn't sound. A household plan needs more than one way to hear a warning — and a place to go that everyone can reach in seconds once they do.

3. Rebuilds are the easiest time to add a safe room. Homes being rebuilt under Executive Order 90 can have a safe room designed in, with far less disruption than retrofitting one later. See new construction and rebuild safe rooms.

4. The basement question is real. Where a home has a basement, it's the right place to go without a shelter; it isn't tested against debris or collapse. Our basement vs safe room guide explains the difference and the options.

How this fits the region's history

May 16, 2025 was not the first major tornado to cross the City or north County. The 1896 tornado devastated the city and East St. Louis; an F4 crossed north St. Louis County in 1967; the Good Friday EF4 hit Lambert and Bridgeton in 2011; EF3s crossed St. Charles County in 2013 and 2021. Our St. Louis tornado history and risk guide sets them side by side.

Related guides

• St. Louis tornado history and risk
• Household tornado plan for St. Louis
• Missouri storm shelter grants, rebates and financing — including what the 2025 declaration does and doesn't fund

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If you're rebuilding after the 2025 tornado, or deciding whether your basement is enough, we can help you plan a safe room. See new construction and rebuild safe rooms, or get a quote.