National Weather Service confirms EF-1 tornado damage from Wednesday storm

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed Thursday that they have found EF-0 and EF-1 tornado damage in Wildwood and Chesterfield from Wednesday’s storm.

The NWS says there were up to 95 mph winds that went through and caused damage. First Alert 4 crews on Wednesday located downed trees and debris in the impacted areas.

“It did sound very much like the usual freight train sound that they tell you about. It got really loud,”.said Wayne Fitzmorris.

The NWS says the tornado formed at 2:50 p.m. just east of Highway 109 in Wildwood and dissipated in the Chesterfield Valley just south of the Missouri River 10 minutes later at 3 p.m.

Some in the path of the tornado said they didn’t hear a storm siren till after the tornado hit. First Alert 4 checked with St. Louis County, St. Louis city and St. Charles County and all activated their sirens within seconds of the warning being issued.

But according to the National Weather Service (NWS), the tornado struck around one minute after the warning was issued. Kevin Deitsch is a NWS meteorologist.

“This was one of those real quick spin up type tornadoes. We had a line of storms out in the Wildwood area and just really rapidly spun up a tornado. It was one of those events where unfortunately we didn’t get the lead time that we always like to get on tornadoes,” said Deitsch.

Friday will be another First Alert Weather day. Southern counties in the First Alert 4 coverage area are at Level 1 risk and our southernmost counties are at Level 2 risk.

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