Missouri averages about one tornado each year per 10,000 square miles of area. Ocassionally, despite what might sound like long odds against it, one of those twisters hits a densely populated area. In the summer of 1895, a St. Louis minister named Irl Hicks predicted a major tornado for the St. Louis area, basing his predictions on the position of the moon and planets. That prediction failed to come true and people didn’t take his second one too seriously.
They should have.
Hicks forecast another tornado for May 17, 1896. He missed by only ten days.
