Tornado outbreak sequence of May 1896

From May 24–28, 1896, a violent tornado outbreak sequence—considered one of the worst on record—struck much of the United States, killing at least 388 people and injuring 1,490 or more. At least 26 tornadoes occurred, including intense, long-lived families. Retroactively rated F5 on the Fujita scale, the strongest tornado of the outbreak struck Michigan, killing 47 or more people. F4 tornadoes in three other states collectively caused most of the remaining deaths, among them a potent twister that impacted Greater St. Louis, claiming 255 lives and becoming the third-deadliest U.S. tornado on record. Additionally, at least one tornado crossed into Canada, inflicting more damage there. Tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis dubbed the severe weather episode "perhaps the most violent single week of tornado activity in United States history".^{[1][note 2]}

Tornado outbreak sequence of May 1896

Damage from the St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado
Tornado outbreak
Tornadoes	≥ 26
Maximum rating	F5 tornado
Duration	May 24–28, 1896
Overall effects
Fatalities	≥ 388
Injuries	≥ 1,490
Damage	> $10,760,000 ($406,680,000 in 2024 USD)[note 1]
Areas affected	Central and Eastern United States, Canada
Part of the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1896

Confirmed tornadoes

Confirmed tornadoes by Fujita rating

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	Total
?	?	1	9	9	6	1	≥ 26

• Possible tornadoes may have hit Kalkaska, Midland, and Wayne counties, Michigan.^[3]

Prior to 1990, there is a likely undercount of tornadoes, particularly E/F0–1, with reports of weaker tornadoes becoming more common as population increased. A sharp increase in the annual average E/F0–1 count by approximately 200 tornadoes was noted upon the implementation of NEXRAD Doppler weather radar in 1990–1991.^{[4][note 3]} 1974 marked the first year where significant tornado (E/F2+) counts became homogenous with contemporary values, attributed to the consistent implementation of Fujita scale assessments.^{[8][note 4]} Numerous discrepancies on the details of tornadoes in this outbreak exist between sources. The total count of tornadoes and ratings differs from various agencies accordingly. The list below documents information from the most contemporary official sources alongside assessments from tornado historian Thomas P. Grazulis.

May 24 event

List of confirmed tornadoes – Sunday, May 24, 1896

F#[note 4]	Location	County / Parish	State	Time (UTC)[note 5]	Path length	Width[note 6]	Damage
F2	S of Manchester	Delaware	IA	03:00–?	3 mi (4.8 km)	Un­known	Un­known
	A tornado wrecked a number of barns and a home, possibly killing a person.[18]
F4	SW of Polk City to northern Valeria to Mingo	Polk, Jasper	IA	04:30–?	28 mi (45 km)	500 yd (460 m)	Un­known
	21+ deaths – A violent tornado passed north of Des Moines, leveling homes and killing at least 18 people in the Bondurant–Santiago–Valeria area. It caused more deaths at Mingo before dissipating, drove a steel railroad rail 15 ft (4.6 m) into the earth at a spot, and injured 60 people.[19][18][20]
F1	Un­known	Dallas	IA	Un­known	Un­known	Un­known	Un­known
	This tornado belonged to the same family as or was identical with the previous event.[19][18]

May 25 event

List of confirmed tornadoes – Monday, May 25, 1896

F#[note 4]	Location	County / Parish	State	Time (UTC)[note 5]	Path length	Width[note 6]	Damage
F4	NW of Forreston to northern Adeline to S of Egan	Ogle	IL	07:00–?	10 mi (16 km)	200 yd (180 m)	Un­known
	4 deaths – A potent tornado leveled five or more farmhouses and a church, while unroofing other homes. Four family members died near Egan, where a large home was cleanly swept away; "nothing was left on the foundation", according to a report quoted by Grazulis. Five injuries occurred.[19][18][20]
F2	S of Byron	Ogle	IL	07:30–?	Un­known	Un­known	Un­known
	A tornado hit a farmstead, flattening all trees and barns.[18]
F3	S of Davis Junction to E of Irene	Ogle, Boone, DeKalb	IL	07:30–?	15 mi (24 km)	Un­known	Un­known
	3 deaths – An intense tornado shifted a house on its foundation, causing it to collapse, fatally crush three occupants, and injure half a dozen others. Bits of the house were carried 5 mi (8.0 km). A barn was wrecked as well, along with outbuildings on 11 farms. In all 10 injuries occurred.[18]
F3	Park Ridge	Cook	IL	07:50–?	4.5 mi (7.2 km)	400 yd (370 m)	$100,000
	A tornado headed east from Norwood Park to Edison Park, destroying half a dozen homes and leaving 30 others irreparable. Its severest impact was to the most elevated part of Norwood Park.[18][20]
F2	N of Clio to E of Otter Lake	Genesee, Lapeer	MI	23:00–?	14 mi (23 km)	150 yd (140 m)	Un­known
	Described as an "auger-shaped funnel" by witnesses, a tornado destroyed three farmhouses, along with cottages and businesses. It also hit a school, lofting its roof 1⁄2 mi (0.80 km). Four injuries occurred.[18]
F3	W of Munger to near Fairgrove	Bay, Tuscola	MI	23:00–?	10 mi (16 km)	600 yd (550 m)	Un­known
	1 death – A tornado destroyed five homes, injuring a dozen people in one of them, as well as a school. According to an account, it "lifted and dashed to the ground" another home during a funeral, forcing the 30 attendants to shelter in a nearby ditch. Airborne debris killed an onlooker, and in all 18 injuries occurred.[18]
F3	W of Sterling Heights (MI) to Mount Clemens (MI) to Canada	Macomb, St. Clair	MI, ON	01:10–?	35 mi (56 km)	200 yd (180 m)	>$60,000
	2 deaths – A tornado leveled barns and homes in the Utica–Warren area, leaving only part of a farmhouse bedroom intact. It then tore a two-block-wide swath through Mount Clemens, wrecking 30 homes, and destroyed more homes in Harrison Township. The unfinished Mount Clemens Sanatorium (later the Colonial Hotel) was leveled. Passing over Lake St. Clair, it did additional damage in Canada. Grazulis initially rated it F4 in a 1984 study, but downgraded it later. In all 15 injuries occurred.[19][18][21]
F5	N of Holly to Ortonville to Oakwood to W of Dryden	Oakland, Lapeer	MI	02:00–?	30 mi (48 km)	800 yd (730 m)	$400,000
	47+ deaths — See section on this tornado — 100 injuries occurred.[19][18][22]
F2	Amadore	Sanilac	MI	02:00–?	3 mi (4.8 km)	100 yd (91 m)	Un­known
	A tornado damaged the entire community of Amadore, tearing apart a few homes before ending over Lake Huron as a waterspout. Three injuries occurred.[18]

May 27 event

List of confirmed tornadoes – Wednesday, May 27, 1896

F#[note 4]	Location	County / Parish	State	Time (UTC)[note 5]	Path length	Width[note 6]	Damage
F2	N of Sturgeon to N of Centralia	Audrain	MO	19:35–?	8 mi (13 km)	70 yd (64 m)	Un­known
	A tornado leveled barns and almost completely tore apart four farmhouses.[18]
F3	S of Higbee to S of Renick	Randolph	MO	20:30–?	6 mi (9.7 km)	400 yd (370 m)	Un­known
	An intense tornado ripped apart numerous barns and destroyed or damaged eight homes, injuring six people.[18]
F3	N of Mexico to W of Vandalia	Audrain	MO	21:15–?	17 mi (27 km)	300 yd (270 m)	Un­known
	6+ deaths – Forming close to the path of an F4 event on May 20, 1891, this tornado hit two schools, killing four or five students and injuring 35 people. It also killed a few more people in farmhouses and injured 50 in all.[23]
F3	S of Sheridan to NE of Marshall	Kingfisher, Logan, Garfield	OK	00:00–?	10 mi (16 km)	Un­known	Un­known
	A tornado shattered one or more houses, injuring a person.[18]
F4	SE of Chamois	Osage	MO	00:15–?	5 mi (8.0 km)	150 yd (140 m)	Un­known
	2 deaths – A tornado struck and destroyed a few farms, one of which lost all seven buildings. Three injuries occurred.[19][18]
F4	St. Louis (MO) to East St. Louis (IL)	St. Louis (MO), Madison (IL)	MO, IL	00:30–?	12 mi (19 km)	800 yd (730 m)	>$10,000,000
	255 deaths – See section on this tornado – 1,000 people were injured.[24][25][26]
F4	New Minden to near Irvington	Washington, Jefferson	IL	00:20–?	23 mi (37 km)	1,000 yd (910 m)	Un­known
	14 deaths – A tornado leveled farms, injuring 50 people. Most of the dead were at New Minden. The tornado tracked through or near Hoyleton, Richview, and Boyd.[24][18]
F4	Near Imbs to New Baden to near Germantown	St. Clair, Clinton	IL	00:45–?	30 mi (48 km)	400 yd (370 m)	Un­known
	24 deaths – A violent tornado family flattened many homes, especially in and around New Baden, where 13 people died. It claimed a dozen more lives near the Birkner and Harmony train stations, as well as another at a farmhouse. 125 injuries occurred.[24][27]
F3	NW of Nashville to N of Richview NE of Mount Vernon	Washington, Jefferson	IL	02:30–?	28 mi (45 km)	400 yd (370 m)	Un­known
	3 deaths – An intense tornado ravaged six farms.[27]
F2	E of Bellflower	Montgomery, Lincoln	MO	Un­known	7 mi (11 km)	Un­known	Un­known
	1 death – A tornado destroyed a barn and church, killing a woman and injuring her infant.[18]

May 28 event

List of confirmed tornadoes – Thursday, May 28, 1896

F#[note 4]	Location	County / Parish	State	Time (UTC)[note 5]	Path length	Width[note 6]	Damage
F2	E of Gettysburg to NE of Hanover	Adams, York	PA	18:00–?	13 mi (21 km)	200 yd (180 m)	Un­known
	A tornado hit the Bonneauville–Abbottstown area, wrecking a house and barns. Furniture was found 1⁄2 mi (0.80 km) away. Four injuries occurred.[27]
F2	W of Wrightsville to northern Columbia	York, Lancaster	PA	18:30–?	9 mi (14 km)	50 yd (46 m)	Un­known
	1 death – A tornado unroofed four homes and a school. It also destroyed three other homes and hit a mill. 20 injuries occurred.[27]
F3	S of Ambler (PA) to Jarrettown (PA) to Allentown (NJ)	Montgomery (PA), Bucks (PA), Mercer (NJ), Monmouth (NJ)	PA, NJ	19:55–?	35 mi (56 km)	200 yd (180 m)	>$200,000
	4 deaths – An intermittent, narrow tornado—possibly a family of up to three events—wrecked 16 or more barns and several stables, particularly in the Allentown–White Horse area. 15 injuries occurred.[27]
F2	SW of Harney (MD) to near Littlestown (PA)	Carroll (MD), Adams (PA)	MD, PA	20:00–?	5 mi (8.0 km)	200 yd (180 m)	Un­known
	A tornado wrecked a house and barns, while unroofing three other homes.[28]

Whigville–Ortonville–Oakwood–Thomas, Michigan

Whigville–Ortonville–Oakwood–Thomas, Michigan

F5 tornado
on the Fujita scale
Overall effects
Fatalities	≥ 47
Injuries	100
Damage	$400,000 ($15,120,000 in 2024 USD)

Late in the evening of May 25, an extremely intense tornado touched down in eastern Michigan and moved northeast. It affected portions of Oakland and Lapeer counties northwest of Detroit. Communities affected included Whigville, Ortonville, Oakwood, and Thomas. Farms and homes were leveled or swept away, with whole families being killed. Debris was carried 12 mi (19 km) away, and trees were debarked, with even small twigs stripped bare in some cases, as if by "an experienced artisan". Fragments of a home in Thomas were dispersed up to 10 mi (16 km) away. A piano from that residence was found 200 yd (180 m) away from the foundation, with one end "pounded full of grass". Damage surveyors reported that grass in the center of the circulation was "pounded down into the earth, as if it had been washed into the earth by a heavy flow of water". 22 or more people were killed in Ortonville, 10 in Oakwood, three in Thomas, four north of Oxford, and three in Whigville, along with others in rural areas. Nine of the dead were in a home at Ortonville. Up to seven communities reported deaths. At least 100 people were injured. With 47 deaths, this is the second-deadliest tornado ever in Michigan, trailing only the Flint–Beecher F5 of 1953, which killed 116 in Genesee County just outside Flint.^[29]

St. Louis, Missouri/East St. Louis, Illinois

St. Louis, Missouri/East St. Louis, Illinois

Damage caused by the tornado
F4 tornado
on the Fujita scale
Overall effects
Fatalities	255
Injuries	1,000
Damage	> $10 million ($377,960,000 in 2024 USD)

Main article: 1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado

The third deadliest tornado in United States history struck the Greater St. Louis area in both Missouri and Illinois, killing 255 people, injuring at least 1,000 more, and causing more than $10 million in damages. It formed just northwest of Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, attended by strong downbursts. At least 137 people died as the tornado traversed the core of the downtown area, leaving a continuous, 1-mile-wide (1.6 km) swath of destroyed homes, schools, saloons, factories, mills, churches, parks, and railroad yards in its wake. Some of destroyed homes were all but completely swept away, but damage to trees and roofs in most areas was less severe. Numerous trees were downed at the 36-acre (0.15 km²) Lafayette Park, and a barometer recorded a drop to 26.74 inHg (906 mb) at this location.

After devastating the city of St. Louis, the tornado crossed the Mississippi River and struck the Eads Bridge, where a 2 in × 10 in (51 mm × 254 mm) wooden plank was found driven through a 5⁄16 in (7.9 mm) wrought iron plate. Uncounted others may have died on boats on the river, which could have swept their bodies downriver where they could not be recorded in the official death toll. The tornado continued into East St. Louis, Illinois, where its path was narrower, but its strength became even more intense. Homes and buildings along the river were completely swept away and a quarter of the buildings there were damaged or destroyed, though many of the structures were frail. An additional 118 people were killed, 35 of whom were at the Vandalia railroad freight yards.^[30]

See also

• Tornadoes in Oklahoma
• List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
• St. Louis tornado history

Notes

1. All losses are in 1896 United States dollars unless otherwise noted.
2. An outbreak is generally defined as a group of at least six tornadoes (the number sometimes varies slightly according to local climatology) with no more than a six-hour gap between individual tornadoes. An outbreak sequence, prior to (after) the start of modern records in 1950, is defined as a period of no more than two (one) consecutive days without at least one significant (F2 or stronger) tornado.^[2]
3. Historically, the number of tornadoes globally and in the United States was and is likely underrepresented: research by Grazulis on annual tornado activity suggests that, as of 2001, only 53% of yearly U.S. tornadoes were officially recorded. Documentation of tornadoes outside the United States was historically less exhaustive, owing to the lack of monitors in many nations and, in some cases, to internal political controls on public information.^[5] Most countries only recorded tornadoes that produced severe damage or loss of life.^[6] Significant low biases in U.S. tornado counts likely occurred through the early 1990s, when advanced NEXRAD was first installed and the National Weather Service began comprehensively verifying tornado occurrences.^[7]
4. The Fujita scale was devised under the aegis of scientist T. Theodore Fujita in the early 1970s. Prior to the advent of the scale in 1971, tornadoes in the United States were officially unrated.^[9][10] Tornado ratings were retroactively applied to events prior to the formal adoption of the F-scale by the National Weather Service.^[11] While the Fujita scale has been superseded by the Enhanced Fujita scale in the U.S. since February 1, 2007,^[12] Canada used the old scale until April 1, 2013;^[13] nations elsewhere, like the United Kingdom, apply other classifications such as the TORRO scale.^[14]
5. All dates are based on the local time zone where the tornado touched down; however, all times are in Coordinated Universal Time and dates are split at midnight CST/CDT for consistency.
6. The listed width values are primarily the average/mean width of the tornadoes, with those having known maximum widths denoted by ♯. From 1952 to 1994, reports largely list mean width whereas contemporary years list maximum width.^[15] Values provided by Grazulis are the average width, with estimates being rounded down (i.e. 0.5 mi (0.80 km) is rounded down from 880 yards to 800 yards.^[16][17]