Heat Records Broken From 1925 in NC for High Heat. 1925 the Year of the TriState Tornado One of the Worst. 1925 & 2026 Similarities!

 

The track of the tornado that recently raged.

The track and time of year bugged me.

Trying to fall asleep last night .....

...it hit me I was thinking on the Tri State Tornado.

1925 

The track below...

The disaster this week made me think on the 1925 TriState Tornado. Why? I know it was a year with some extremes and weather oddities including one of the worst tornado tragedies in American History and I'd add the world. I knew it was in March and I knew it impacted parts of Indiana. I wondered what sort of weather that year would create such a disastrous set up and obviously there was high heat meeting up with cold diving air. Very classic set up and yet the size and scope of it was off the charts. We are having very high heat this week, before a cool front breezes through Thursday evening.

Google AI

(not always perfect but it's well done)

A look at the actual weather maps.

I've wondered how similar the weather was in 1925 to what we have been experiencing this week. I put it on my to do list to check into today. But time moves fast in 2026 and it gets away from us fast and before I could research it the news came in just now that the high temperature in Raleigh today beat the all time record high for March 11th and the year that held that record was indeed 1925. It didn't surprise me. It's called the Tri State Tornado as it was a long track and covered a three states as you can see above moving from Missouri through Illinois into Indiana. Today people chase tornadoes, people watch chasers chase on YouTube and run in real time to seek shelter while watching the tornado on satellite imagery in real time as it approaches their town.

The biggest difference between the year 1925 and 2026 is that today we have a heads up, we have warnings, we have live real time evaluation of a developing system and we can do our best to warn people. We have alarms on our phones that are loud and wake us in the dead of night. In 1925 the ability to forecast weather was as good as it could be and many were taken by surprise. I've read family stories and discussion on the Tri State Tornado and I know how surprised many were and the size and scope of the tragedy from a geographic perspective so this happened across a wide area. 

Oddly or not so oddly the 1925 Hurricane Season was a quiet one. A very quiet one. While the Roaring 20s roared on celebrating the boom and prosperity, it took a long time to clean up from the tornado from hell. It left such a scary in our national history that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a short story about the tornado. Note the very slow season began rather late and ended on December 1st, 1925.

I couldn't sleep thinking on this.......

....knowing it's supposed to be hot today.

Very hot as in high 80s in NC.

How similar were the two years?

The TV happened to be on in the background.

I muted it, kind of like a screensaver...

I watch General Hostpital ...don't judge me.

I looked up and froze the screen to get a pic.

Whoah. 

We broke the record from 1925.

Seems my thoughts were on point.

I still want to do some research.

No end to videos on YouTube

Ironically the children that heard about the Tri State Tornadoes on the radio and read news articles grew up fearing tornadoes in a new way. Later as teens and young adults they went to the movies and watched The Wizard of Oz ...the epic movie from a time when kids had nightmares about a tornado like the one that made a bee line for Dorothy's home and scooped her up to a far away land called Oz. 

I know it's funny looking at it now....

...but at the time it was scary.

When I was a little girl they'd put the Wizard of Oz on every year. I had this friend named Joey, a little boy who loved dinosaurs. He probably grew up to love weather and geology. Our mothers were friends. They talked while we watched in his bedroom. I used to stare at his room while watching  as it had a lot of little model dinosaurs. I think I heard years later he taught science or history. Joey is not so important, but he was an important part of the story as it was the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz as we sat there being afraid of the mean scenes and listening to the awesome music scenes. I studied dance since I was 7 years old, do not judge me!

You have to think on how the generation that was little when the Tri State Tornadoe happened... the age of Dorothy went on to the theater and make The Wizard of Oz one of the all time biggest movie hits of all time. 

What is in a collective history indeed?? Are people more afraid of Hurricanes or Tornadoes? How much do movies like Twister make a collective difference in our lives?

So gotta go make dinner. Chicken and Yellow Rice, because you know it's a go to meal round here.

Will the 2026 Hurricane Season be quiet or will it be wild like 1926. Ironically the year after a very quiet hurricane season was filled with numerous historic hurricanes including the one that dealt a heavy blow to the boom of the Roaring 20s when the Great Miami Hurricane made landfall in South Florida as a direct hit by a strong Category 4 Hurricane!

Something to think on...

Sweet Tropical Dreams,

BobbiStorm