As spring draws near, we have entered the severe weather season.

On Tuesday, Feb. 28, a storm hit Perryville with an EF-4 tornado, killed one person and injured dozens. Now, another storm has hit closer to home.

According to the National Weather Service, an EF-1 tornado hit Wentzville Monday night at 11:51 p.m. and ended three minutes later. The tornado came with no warning. There was no warning because of several reasons. One being much of the area was under a Tornado Watch, which means conditions are favorable of producing a tornado and the National Weather Service radar did not detect the tornado and the tornado happened to fast for the sirens to go off. To classify as a EF-1 tornado, winds have to be from 86-110 mph. The tornado caused major damage to buildings and caused a gas leak in the area.

According to KMOV’s (Channel 4) chief meteorologist Steve Templeton, on whether or not a Tornado Watch will be extended to the Lake St. Louis area at 5:53 p.m. “Later tonight yes, that’s possible. Isolated storms late evening, squall line after midnight.”

A thunderstorm is classified as severe when hail measures one inch or greater and when winds exceeds 57.5 mph. A difference between a watch and a warning. A watch means conditions are favorable for the severe weather, a warning means take action now.

In the Liberty High School area, there were no reports of damage by this storm. But other parts of the Wentzville R-IV School District area was affected. Wentzville Mobile Manor on West Main Street by Dairy Queen, was hit the hardest.  

As of 2:10 p.m. all outages was fixed in the Wentzville R-IV School District area.