BETHALTO - Tornado warnings were issued last Thursday, May 27, 2021, and high rotating winds hit the Alton-Godfrey area around 12:25 p.m. that day. Bethalto’s Jordan H. submitted photos of huge storm clouds near Bethalto shown above and below.
Melissa Mainhart, a St. Louis National Weather Service meteorologist, said the tornado watch included Metro East areas such as Alton, Godfrey, Worden, Staunton, and Wilsonville. Mainhart said there were reports of wind damage from thunderstorms, but they had not received notification of any funnel clouds reaching the ground.
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“The Godfrey region in Madison County did have reports of lots of trees down and another storm in St. Charles County and O’Fallon also took out some branches. There was a report of a tree down on a home in Wentzville (Missouri).”
Mainhart said the wind gusts last Thursday reached 60 mph and those were the speeds expected.
“We didn’t get anything higher than 60 mph,” she said.
Mainhart said the NWS in St. Louis works hard to confirm storms and does not want to overwhelm the public unnecessarily with warnings.”
Mainhart is a North Carolina State and St. Louis University graduate. She said she loves St. Louis and her work as a meteorologist.
