The circle is the bright reflectivity associated with debris from the tornado in St. Louis Co. This is headed toward I-70 where it intersects with I-170 and the north part of the City of St. Louis along with Bridgeton Terrace, St. Ann, and Lambert Field. If you know how to read aviation METAR reports   +FC = tornado on the ground. At :12 the tornado was just west of the airport and there were gusts to 50 mph at the airport. Debris ball now (8:18) was near Ferguson. NCAR-RAP Real-Time Weather Data Output produced by METARs form (23 April 2011  01:17 UTC) found at  http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/surface/ KSTL 230112Z 29029G42KT 1SM R30R/2800VP6000FT +FC -TSRA BKN020 OVC040CB 22/19 RMK TORNADO B10 W MOV E AO2 PK WND 29042/0112 CONS LTGICCGCC ALQDS TS ALQDS MOV E P0001

Damage reported near or at Harrah's Casino on Missouri River and I-270 and Dorsett Rd.  Northern tornado near I-270, moving east.  Tornado 2 mi. NW of St. Ann. Lambert Airport may be affected. Southern hook (arrow) more defined. Tornado warning northern Jefferson Co.

Both storms are moving east. 

Tornado near Creve Coueur and 5 SW of Pacific at 7:56pm UPDATE 752pm... Tornado warning continues for St. Charles and NW St. Louis Co. Also funnel cloud (see symbol) in eastern Franklin Co. to the south. "Large and destructive tornado in St. Charles Co." Hook is circled. It is moving near Weldon Springs. Second hook west of I-44 southwest to STL.  Time: 7:34pm. St. Louis Terminal Doppler weather radar shows the rotation near Weldon Spring (northern circle) moving east and near Union, MO (southern circle). 7:42pm, KMOV TV video shows the apparent northern tornado (image at left).

TORNADO ON THE GROUND JUST EAST OF NEW MELIE, MO.  This tornado is moving toward Weldon Spring and Lake St. Louis! Second hook echo west near Schmidt Ford just west of I-44 southwest of St. Louis.  Time 7:27pm.

Purple = tornado warning. St. Louis is dense road network at right center part of image. Strong thunderstorm farther south is also moving toward STL area. click to enlarge There is a hook echo (tornado signature) in western St. Charles Co. and a tornado warning is in effect for the purple area.  There is also some rotation on the southern storm (arrow). Update 7:23pm. Tornado warning on southern storm.

Large area of 8 to 9 inches of rain forecast from Miami, OK into southern Illinois.

Red = tornado warning.  Yellow = tornado watch.

The tornado index has increased to high levels in an area from Columbia to St. Louis to Rolla, MO. Please keep up on the weather in these areas. UPDATE 5:59PM CDT Click to enlarge Purple = tornado warning south of I-70 near Chamois, MO. Storm is looking quite capable of producing a tornado. That storm is moving east. Funnel cloud just reported with that storm (6:03pm). The storms along I-44 southwest of St. Louis are moving northeast. The storm west of Cuba is strengthening. 6:20pm: Tornado potential high for Hermann, MO.  Here is the hook echo along the Missouri River west of Hermann at that time. 6:04pm , multiple tornado warnings issued in southwest Missouri and eastern Oklahoma. Red polygons in this display = tornado warnings. Hook echo east of Norman, OK near the town of Pink.

Is this what passes for higher education these days?

I took this photo about 4:40 looking southeast from Wichita. It is of thunderstorms more than 100 miles away in Oklahoma. Here is what they looked on radar at the same time. The arrows on the picture correspond right to left to the arrows on the radar image on the latter is left to right.

Tornado watch in effect until 10pm CDT from the Ozarks of southwest Missouri to the St. Louis Bi-State area.  Keep an eye out, especially if you are leaving your home for Good Friday services this evening.

This is better than I have seen in any of the U.S. papers.