Yeah, they moved northeast at a pretty alarming rate.  I think 3 people died down around Shelby County.  Amazingly, they were reporting only a few minor injuries in the St. Louis area, but the pictures are pretty scary.  They were saying it was the first time a category 4 tornado (whatever that means) had hit St. Louis since 1967.

http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=33417901&event=1144158&CategoryID=38578&picnum=2&move=B#Image

Last edited by forsberg_us (12/31/2010 9:50 pm)

I think I'd rather deal with tornadoes than snow. We got our requisite 18-inch snowstorm last Sunday and it's been 50 degrees and raining for the past three days, so I have a lake in my basement.

I lived in Illinois for 21 years and in St. Louis for parts of 9.  The thing about tornados is that, unless you are a tornado chaser, you never see them.  I remember meeting a girl in college who was from the East and she said her biggest thrill about going to school in the midwest was that she was going to get to see a tornado.  Talk about misconceptions!

Now that you mention it, TK, I do recall the ice storms.  Some winters it seems like a miracle that there is a single tree left standing in a crescent shaped arc from the Texas panhandle to Cincinnati.

Max wrote:

I lived in Illinois for 21 years and in St. Louis for parts of 9.  The thing about tornados is that, unless you are a tornado chaser, you never see them.  I remember meeting a girl in college who was from the East and she said her biggest thrill about going to school in the midwest was that she was going to get to see a tornado.  Talk about misconceptions!

No kidding.

Now that you mention it, TK, I do recall the ice storms.  Some winters it seems like a miracle that there is a single tree left standing in a crescent shaped arc from the Texas panhandle to Cincinnati.

We had one a few weeks earlier and it rendered the area useless. I remember having a really, really long day at work.