tornadoes

Today marked a rather rare weather event in Iowa. A wide tornado made its way across the central part of the state today in one of the earliest twisters on record for this time of year.

It was an unexpectedly stormy day in Illinois today. There were a half dozen reports of tornadoes that touched down in the Land of Lincoln including a couple videos showing the twisters as they were touching down.

It wasn't the largest and didn't do the most damage, but there was a northeast Missouri tornado in 1977 that could easily qualify as one of the strangest the area has ever seen.

We see our share of tornadoes in Missouri and Illinois. However, there is one twister that did something so strange I have yet to hear an explanation that can tell me how a monster twister managed to destroy everything, but miraculously left 1 lone house standing.

It was one of the worst tornado outbreaks in history and it began in Missouri one year ago today. By the time the twisters lifted back into the clouds, 89 souls had been lost due to twisters some referred to as "The Beast".

It would be a good idea to keep an eye on the weather the week of December 12 as a monster system is expected to bring tornadoes to parts of Missouri and Illinois.

A storm chaser was after a large tornado in Missouri when he made one crucial mistake and found himself getting slammed by the twister he was chasing.

I grew up in the Hannibal/Quincy area and tend to be a weather nerd, but have never heard of this historic storm. It was the most devastating tornado in northeast Missouri history and it claimed 14 lives back in March of 1876.

We have been fortunate to not have many strong tornadoes do much damage in northeast Missouri the past few years. However, there is quite a history of twisters that have devasted the area including 3 that occurred in the 1940's that went through Hannibal and Palmyra.

I've never seen a tornado, but I've been near a few. I prefer the much less dangerous type of wind events which is why I love this huge dust devil that was captured on video chewing up the dirt in a Missouri farm field.