EF2 Tornadoes in the St. Louis metro at Oakville, MO and Mascoutah, New Baden and Trenton, IL on March 14, 2025

By DAN ROBINSON Editor/Photographer

4K CHASE VIDEO: Oakville, MO and Mascoutah, IL tornadoes

Note: This is a combination storm chase log/unofficial damage survey. The location of each damage photo is notated on the map shown.

I observed two nighttime tornadoes in the St. Louis metro on Friday night. The first was a rain-wrapped tornado producing power flashes in Arnold and Oakville, Missouri. The next was the start of a significant tornado in Mascoutah, Illinois that passed within 2 miles of home.

With storm speeds expected to be 65-70mph, my plan was to simply wait for storms to arrive in the St. Louis metro area. When storms are moving that fast, there is a big risk of them getting ahead of you if you try to intercept them early. I decided to start in O'Fallon, Missouri to watch the evolution of the storms in western part of the state. Eventually, the target storm emerged near Springfield, tracking along I-44 toward the St. Louis metro area after sunset. I pondered the idea of heading west on I-44 to intercept, but I felt there would be little to gain by doing that. The terrain is difficult for visibility there, and once I intercepted the storm, I'd only be 10-15 minutes ahead of it after driving east at interstate speeds for an hour! I really wanted to prioritize catching storms in the metro area, and that early intercept attempt would risk forfeiting that for very little to gain.

As the storm closed in, I moved to my downtown intercept spot and waited. I was too far away to see the mostly rain-wrapped tornadoes the lead storm produced in Villa Ridge, Chesterfield northward into Alton. This storm was moving north-northeast and would pass well to the west of downtown. I would have moved west to intercept that if it had not been for a second storm rapidly developing to its south headed in the general direction of downtown. Eventually it became clear this storm's meso would pass east of downtown somewhere between East St. Louis and Caseyville. I hedged on the safer option of Caseyville, as it was outside of the difficult-to-get-drone-clearance Class D airspace of St. Louis downtown airport, and I'd have no issues monitoring the incoming storm with the drone.

I launched the drone near I-64 and watched the storm approach. Power flashes were soon visible from the EF2 tornado in Arnold and Oakville. Lightning was also frequent and intense:

This tornado was rated EF2 by the National Weather Service.

The main meso ended up tracking on the western side of my earlier estimates in East St. Louis, but it was not recycling a new circulation. As the RFD precip rapidly approached, I moved east on I-64 to get out of its way and to intercept the next storm in the line. I awaited the third storm at Rieder Road, then moved east to Highway 4 to intercept a new circulation that was developing. As soon as I exited the interstate and turned south on Highway 4, nearly continuous power flashes began exploding as a tornado rapidly developed just south of MidAmerica Airport.

I turned around at the new Boeing plant to attempt to get back to I-64 to stay with this, but the precip caught me at the airport entrance. This was suddenly filled with wind-blown nickel sized hail that looked large enough to break my side windows (I did not have my hail shields mounted for this chase). I pulled off of the road and angled the car into the wind to protect my side windows until the hail slowed. This meant I had to let the tornado go.

I got back onto the interstate eastbound, slowed by hail still covering the road. After passing the rest areas, I encountered a large swath of debris that included both structural roof pieces and toppled trees:

Location 5: Toppled trees on the shoulder of eastbound I-64.

A semi was toppled on the westbound side, with a second trailer damaged (this is from dashcam video the next day):

Location 4: Damaged/flipped semis at I-64 westbound Gateway Rest Area

Power was out at the gas stations and McDonald's on IL 161. I went home to check for RFD damage, but surprisingly our part of town still had power and was unscathed. I then returned to Mascoutah via Highway 161 to look for damage. I found a shed in the middle of Fuesser Road on the north side of Mascoutah (Location 1 on the map).

Location 1: Shed blown into Fuesser Road (moved off of the road at the time of this photo)

Tree damage resulted in large branches on Highway 161 (Location 2 on the map). A railroad crossing gate on Highway 4 was broken:

Location 3: Broken Nortfolk Southern railroad crossing gate on Highway 4

A fourth storm followed the third by about 20 minutes, heading for New Baden. A visible-on-radar gust front led this storm by about 4 miles, so I did not expect it to be a tornado threat. It passed through town uneventfully. A few more non-severe storms moved past with occasional lightning. I tried unsuccessfully for a few shots 1/2 mile down the road from home, after which my chase was over.

On Saturday and Sunday, I did a complete (unofficial) survey of the entire tornado path. The damage was much worse north of the interstate. The tornado destroyed several barns and damaged many homes along Summerfield Road and to the northeast. The worst damage I saw was on Luettinger Road, where more than 1/2 mile of power lines were down with many snapped poles. The Kehrer Brothers Dairy Farm suffered catastrophic damage, with every structure on the property either damaged or destroyed. A home along County Line Road lost its entire roof (the EF2 damage that resulted in the tornado's final official rating). The new solar farm south of Highline Road suffered extensive damage. At Highway 160 and Highline Road, extensive power line damage was causing a traffic jam. The worst damage I saw, in the vicinity of Luettinger Road and County Line Road north of New Baden, was confirmed to be EF2 intensity by the official NWS survey.

Before the official survey was done by the NWS, I performed an unofficial survey of the entire path of this tornado. I put together this map that shows the locations of damage I observed:

After crossing IL Highway 4, the tornado damaged signs for the railroad crossing on Christ Road:

Location 34: Railroad crossing sign toppled on Christ Road.

A barn was partially destroyed on Machine Shop Road, with the home suffering roof and siding damage (Location 35). A power pole was snapped north of the farmstead.

Location 35: Heavily damaged barn and minor damage to home on Machine Shop Road.

Before crossing Interstate 64, the tornado produced significant damage to several barns and snapped large tree trunks on a farm on Richter Road.

Location 36: Large tree trunks snapped on Richter Road south of I-64.

Location 36: Barn destroyed on Richter Road south of I-64.

Along Summerfield Road near the interstate. Note: the reddish hue in these images is real. The air was filled with dirt from the Texas dust storm created by the same powerhouse upper trough that produced the tornado outbreaks (there was even "muddy rain" later in the day).

Location 6: Destroyed barn, looking southwest from Summerfield Road south of I-64. Note debris in the field in the distance.

Location 7: Bowed garage door, Summerfield Road south of I-64

Location 8: Tree and roof damage, Summerfield Road north of I-64

Location 11: Roof from Location 12 and snapped tree trunk, Summerfield Road north of I-64

Location 12: Destroyed barn, Summerfield Road north of I-64

Continuing northeast, the tornado damaged a barn on a Pfieffer Road farm (Location 14). It crossed Ruth School Road, damaging the roof of a home (location 15) and destroying a barn (Location 16).

Location 16: Destroyed barn on Ruth School Road

Continuing northeast, the worst damage was to the Kehrer Brothers Dairy Farm along Luettinger Road west of County Line Road. Power lines were also extensively damaged, with snapped poles, from Location 18 to Location 23 on the map. The power line repairs were completed on Sunday March 16. Here is the Google Street View imagery of what the Kehrer Brothers facility looked like beforehand).

Location 17,18: Damaged barn, start of power line damage. The pole nearest the truck and all of the ones farther down are all new replacements (crews repaired the lines quickly).

Location 19: Destroyed barn on Luettinger Road

Location 20: Snapped telephone poles on Luettinger Road

Location 22: Damaged/destroyed buildings at Kehrer Brothers Dairy Farm

Location 22: Damaged silos at Kehrer Brothers Dairy Farm

Drone view of Locations 22 and 21 (Kehrer Brothers Dairy Farm), looking west-southwest

Location 23: Collapsed barn

Location 23: Roof damage to home

Location 24: Collapsed barn on Luettinger Road near Wesclin High School

The tornado continued across County Line Road, producing what appeared to be EF-2 damage. A roof was completely removed from a home (Location 25). At the adjacent farm (Location 33), two barns/buildings were damaged, with one completely destroyed:

Drone view of Locations 25, 26 and 33, looking north

Location 25: Entire roof removed from house (EF2 rated damage)

Location 25: Debris lodged in partially-toppled windbreak

Location 33: Toppled tree and multiple destroyed buildings

As the tornado approached Highline Road, it damaged a solar farm #1 (Location 26) and produced extensive power line damage that extended from west of Location 27 (solar farm #2) to past Location 29 as well as several hundred feet north and south on Highway 160. Repairs to these lines were completed on Saturday March 15. A home at Location 27 had minor roof damage.

Location 26: Drone view of solar farm #1 damage south of Highline Road

Location 28: Roof damage to home on Highway 160

The last significant damage on the track occurred just east of Highway 160 about 1.5 miles south of Trenton. It appears that the tornado made a hard turn toward the north about the time it was crossing Highway 160. Two barns were collapsed here (Location 31) with several damaged trees. The final signs of tornado damage I found was snapped tree trunks and limbs in the immediate vicinity of the intersection of Mill Road and Highway 160 (Location 30). The easternmost damage was a snapped power pole on Mill Road at Highline Road east of Highway 160 (Location 32).

Location 31: Collapsed barns along Highway 160

Location 32: Snapped power pole on Mill Road at its intersection with Highline Road

The total path length appears to be 8.9 miles. I did not find any additional damage north or east of Locations 30, 31 and 32, including in the town of Trenton. It appears the tornado dissipated shortly after crossing Highway 160. I did not find any notable damage (aside from small tree limbs broken) in Mascoutah aside from the Fuesser Road shed (Location 1), which was to the south of the tornado's primary track line. It appears the tornado started somewhere in the vicinity east of Harper Road or along/north of Fuesser Road. I also did not see any evidence of cycloidal scars in the fields, including at the location of the tornado's peak width and intensity north of New Baden. All of the damage and debris fields showed convergent westerly to southerly winds on the south/east side of the tornado. I did not find any damage or debris indicating winds from the north or east on the north or west side of the tornado.

The full data from the NWS surveys of these tornadoes can be found on the Damage Assessment Toolkit: