Missouri’s 10 Most Destructive Tornadoes of All Time

If you've lived in Missouri for any extended period of time, you have no doubt either been in or near an area where a tornado has hit. If you look at the most destructive tornadoes that have been recorded over the state's history, you'll notice that some of the worst have happened just in the past 25 years.

Here are the 10 most destructive tornadoes as recorded by the Missouri Secretary of State's office:

The sad thing is this list could have been much longer. Here are several other Missouri tornado events that were destructive in the cost of property and lives:

• The Kirksville Tornado (1899)
• The Stockton Lake Tornado (2003), an F4 that caused extreme damage in southwest Missouri
• The Good Friday Tornadoes (2011) in the St. Louis region
• The March 2025 Missouri tornado outbreak

I've had many funnel clouds or storms with rotation go over my homes over the years. There was only one that really did directly impact my home and that was in Hannibal back in 2013. The NWS likes to refer to that event as straight-line winds, but straight-line winds don't drive tree limbs into the ground in a circular formation. I recall being in the basement of our home watching huge trees outside bend to nearly horizontal as the tornado passed nearby. It's a terrifying reality to experience, but the truth is we were one of the fortunate families who only had tree and roof damage. So many others in Missouri have faced true tragedy because of these storms. Let's hope many more in the future don't have to also.