There was a dark cloud hanging over St. Louis on April 27, 2026. Weather forecasts the week before had predicted a belt of severe weather stretching from Minnesota into northeast Texas, cutting across western Missouri and parts of five bordering states.
As the weekend passed—and weather crept eastward—the highest risk of tornado activity was placed, again, squarely on St. Louis, triggering several tornado warnings and sounding sirens.
Many St. Louisans had believed, for a long time, that something special about our city, and maybe cities in general, insulated us from the potential for a tornado to cut through the urban core. May 16, 2025, changed that. It made the threat of catastrophe much more real for the people of St. Louis, and dramatically changed the social fabric—and built environment—of North City in particular…