1955 Great Plains tornado outbreak

1955 Great Plains tornado outbreak

Damage from the Udall Tornado
Date of tornado outbreak:	May 25–26, 1955
Duration1:	over 30 hours
Maximum rated tornado2:	F5 tornado
Tornadoes caused:	46
Damages:	unknown
Fatalities:	102
Areas affected:	U.S Central and Southern Plains and Midwest
1Time from first tornado to last tornado 2Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita Scale

The 1955 Great Plains tornado outbreak was a deadly tornado outbreak that struck the southern and central U.S Plain States on May 25–26, 1955. It produced at least 46 tornadoes across 7 states including 2 F5 tornadoes in Blackwell, Oklahoma and Udall, Kansas. The outbreak killed 102 from 3 tornadoes while injuring hundreds more. Unusual electromagnetic activity was observed, including St. Elmo's fire.

Blackwell-Udall tornadoes

The Blackwell tornado formed in Noble County at around 9:00 PM CDT before crossing through the eastern portions of the Kay County town of Blackwell as a 500-yard F5 wedge. It claimed the lives of 20 people in Blackwell and injured over 200 before crossing and dissipating into Cowley County, Kansas. In addition of destroying nearly 200 homes, the tornado also demolished the town's main employers including the Acme Foundry and the Hazel Atlas Glass plant. 400 homes were destroyed or swept away, and 500 other homes were damaged. 60 businesses were also destroyed and the local hospital also sustained major damage. Most of the western half of the town spared the worst of the damage.

30 minutes later, the same supercell that spawned the Blackwell tornado produced another violent tornado just east of the first tornado track near the Kansas/Oklahoma border. It proceeded northward across Sumner and Cowley counties. The town of Udall was especially hard hit with F5 damage which disintegrated numerous structures and homes all across the town when the funnel, about 1300 yards-wide, hit it at around 10:30 PM CDT. Half of the towns population was killed or injured. Numerous homes and businesses were destroyed, many of which were swept away. A pickup truck was wrapped around a tree, and was stripped of everything but it's frame and tires. The tornado later dissipated after traveling over 50 miles from the Oklahoma border to southeast of Wichita. This tornado was the deadliest in the state's history with 80 fatalities and over 200 injured.

Most NWS records had classified the event as two distinct tornadoes which formed from the same supercell which formed in southern Oklahoma and traveled through metro Oklahoma City where it produced weaker tornadoes with minimal damage in the southern suburbs of Norman and Chickasha.

In addition NWS officials confirmed an additional F2 tornado near Tonkawa which may have been either part of the Blackwell tornado or a satellite tornado. Other tornadoes in the region occurred on May 27 near the same region but did little damage.

Other tornadoes

Outbreak death toll

State	Total	County	County total
Kansas	80	Cowley	75
		Sumner	5
Oklahoma	22	Kay	20
		Roger Mills	2
Totals	102
All deaths were tornado-related

Another deadly tornado occurred in Cheyenne in Roger Mills County in southwestern Oklahoma south of Woodward during the late afternoon killing 2. This storm originated from the Texas panhandle. The final tornado in the hardest hit region occurred during the early morning hours of May 26 when a weak tornado occurred in Salisaw in extreme eastern Oklahoma in Sequoyah near the Arkansas border.

Numerous tornadoes occurred across the Midwestern states from Arkansas to Illinois. The strongest tornado was located near the Little Rock area but no fatalities were reported with this tornado or any other reported on May 26.

Tornado table

Confirmed Total	Confirmed F0	Confirmed F1	Confirmed F2	Confirmed F3	Confirmed F4	Confirmed F5
46	11	17	13	3	1	2

• Sources: [1] [2]

May 25, 1955 event

F#	Location	County	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
Texas
F4	SW of Aberdeen, TX to S of Dempsey, OK	Collingsworth, TX, Wheeler, Roger Mills, OK	2117	45.1 miles (72.2 km)	2 deaths 13 farm homes were destroyed, some of which were swept away. 100 cattle were killed and a car was carried 700 feet.
F0	SE of Sterling City	Sterling	0000	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F1	E of Rotan	Fisher	0430	0.3 miles (0.5 km)
F2	SW of Benjamin	Knox	0530	11.9 miles (19 km)
F2	Wichita Falls area	Wichita	0738	1.3 miles (2.1 km)
Oklahoma
F1	E of Shattuck	Ellis	0000	4.9 miles (7.8 km)
F1	NE of Rush Springs	Grady	0000	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F0	NE of Mayfield	Beckham	0005	3.8 miles (6.1 km)
F1	NE of Kingfisher	Kinfisher	0100	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F2	NE of Camargo	Dewey	0230	5.1 miles (8.2 km)	5 homes and a trailer were destroyed. The trailer occupant was severely injured.
F3	S of Deer Creek	Grant	0300	13.3 miles (21.3 km)	A house and several rural buildings were destroyed. 1 person was injured.
F2	NE of Tonkawa	Kay	0300	2.7 miles (4.3 km)	Tornado destroyed four homes, along with several farms and granaries.
F5	NE of Tonkawa, OK to South Haven, KS	Kay, OK, Sumner, KS	0326	28.4 miles (45.4 km)	20 deaths See section above.
F5	E of Peckham, OK to NE of Atlanta, KS	Kay, OK, Sumner, KS, Cowley	0400	56.4 miles (90.2 km)	80 deaths See section above.
F1	W of Martha	Jackson	0500	6.2 miles (9.9 km)
Kansas
F1	NW of Antonino	Ellis	0140	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F2	E of Osage City to Leavenworth	Osage, Douglas, Leavenworth	0627	66.2 miles (105.9 km)	Barns were leveled.
Source: Tornado History Project - May 25, 1955 Storm Data

May 26, 1955 event

F#	Location	County	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
Oklahoma
F0	Velma area	Stephens	0830	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F1	N of Chickasha	Grady	0830	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F1	Oklahoma City area (south)	Oklahoma	0900	0.5 miles (0.8 km)
F1	E of Moore	Cleveland	0900	11.6 miles (18.6 km)
F0	SW of Shawnee	Pottawatomie	0930	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F0	Cushing area	Payne	1000	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F0	Durant area	Bryan	1120	4.5 miles (7.2 km)
F1	Sallisaw to NE of Stony Point	Sequoyah	1245	14.2 miles (22.7 km)
Missouri
F1	Joplin area	Jasper	1300	2.7 miles (4.3 km)
F1	SW of Clarksburg	Moniteau	1545	0.2 miles (0.32 km)
F2	N of Norborne	Carroll	0000	0.2 miles (0.32 km)	A home was unroofed and pushed 20 feet off of it's foundation.
F1	SW of Koshkonong	Howell	0100	2 miles (3.2 km)
F1	SW of Linneus (1st tornado)	Linn	0100	0.2 miles (0.32 km)
F0	SW of Linneus (2nd tornado)	Linn	0100	0.2 miles (0.32 km)
F3	N of Worthington	Schuyler	0200	11.7 miles (18.7 km)	Hundreds of trees were snapped and a home was nearly leveled.
Texas
F0	Corsicana area	Navarro	1430	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
Illinois
F2	E of Coatsburg	Adams	1750	1.5 miles (2.4 km)
F2	SE of Pekin	Tazewell	2049	1.5 miles (2.4 km)
F1	Burbank area (SW Chicago)	Cook	2200	1.5 miles (2.4 km)
F1	W of Filckerville to W of Beecher	Kankakee, Will	2230	18.7 miles (29.9 km)
Kansas
F0	N of McPherson	McPherson	1900	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F2	W of St. Joseph, MO	Doniphan	2330	0.1 miles (0.16 km)	8 buildings on a farm were destroyed. 2 other farms were also damaged.
F0	S of Redfield	Bourbon	0030	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
F0	NW of Baxter Springs	Cherokee	0100	0.1 miles (0.16 km)
Arkansas
F3	Jessieville to NW of Pinnacle	Garland, Saline	2245	28.8 miles (46.1 km)
F2	SE of Pleasant Valley	Perry	2320	4.5 miles (7.2 km)	11 barns were damaged or destroyed.
F2	SW of Weldon	Woodruff, Jackson	0220	7.5 miles (12 km)	6 homes were destroyed and 25 others were damaged.
Nebraska
F1	SE of Hubbard	Dakota	2300	4.3 miles (6.9 km)
F2	NE of Wayne	Wayne	2330	6.5 miles (10.4 km)	Buildings were destroyed on 5 farms.
Source: Tornado History Project - May 26, 1955 Storm Data

See also

• List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
• List of F5 tornadoes
• Radio atmospheric [3]

External links

• Tornado Table from NWS Norman, Oklahoma
• Outbreak Summary from NWS Norman, Oklahoma
• NWS Wichita, Kansas page on the Udall tornado
• Full map of 1955 Great Plains tornado outbreak Tornado History Project