Tornadoes of 1955

Tornadoes of 1955

Damage from the Udall Tornado
Timespan	1955
Maximum rated tornado	F5 tornado Blackwell, OK on May 25 Udall, KS on May 25
Tornadoes in U.S.	591
Damage (U.S.)	Unknown
Fatalities (U.S.)	129
Fatalities (worldwide)	>129

This page documents the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1955, primarily in the United States. Most tornadoes form in the U.S., although some events may take place internationally. Tornado statistics for older years like this often appear significantly lower than modern years due to fewer reports or confirmed tornadoes.

Events

Several unusual events occurred during the 1955 tornado season. May 25 saw two F5 tornadoes on the ground at the same time in the same general area of Northern Oklahoma and Southern Kansas, both of which caused catastrophic damage and hundreds of casualties. In addition, 1955 saw five people killed by F0 tornadoes, with four of them being in Georgia alone. This was the most deaths from F0 tornadoes in a single year at the time.

United States yearly total

Confirmed tornadoes by Fujita rating

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	Total
0	170	217	164	30	8	2	591

January

There were 3 tornadoes confirmed in the US in January.

January 18

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	0	1	0	0	0	0

A rare F1 tornado moved through areas just of Downtown Los Angeles. There were no casualties.

February

There were 4 tornadoes confirmed in the US in February.

March

There were 42 tornadoes confirmed in the US in March.

March 1

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	0	1	1	1	0	0

Three damaging tornadoes struck Ohio and Indiana. The first one was an F1 tornado that struck the southwest side of Troy, Ohio, injuring one. A destructive F2 than struck south of Bedford, Indiana. The final tornado was a strong F3 tornado in Tyrrell, Ohio that killed one and injured six. Overall, the three tornadoes killed one and injured seven.

March 13–16

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	0	1	4	1	0	0

A destructive series of tornadoes struck South Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky, and North Carolina. On March 13, an isolated, but strong F2 tornado moved through the north sides of Ridge Spring and Monetta, South Carolina, killing two and injuring 10. The next day, an F3 tornado moved through rural areas of Clinton and Caldwell Counties in Missouri, injuring one. On March 15, a brief, but strong F2 tornado hit the southeast side of Cleaton, Kentucky, injuring nine. Finally, on March 16, another isolated, but large F2 tornado tore through areas southeast of Black Creek, North Carolina, killing one and injuring another. Overall, the six tornadoes killed three and injured 21.

March 19

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	1	0	0	0	0	0

A rare F0 tornado briefly touched down near Wainaku, Hawaii north of Hilo. There were no casualties.

March 20–22

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	0	8	7	2	0	0

An unusually intense outbreak of 17 tornadoes impacted areas from Texas to Vermont. On March 20, the first tornado of the outbreak struck Illinois Bend, Texas just south of Red River, injuring one. Later, a long-tracked F2 tornado hit the southeastern part of Jonesboro, Arkansas, before moving into Missouri and striking the towns of Arbyrd, Hollywood, Caruth, and Pascola. The tornado then lifted just before crossing the Mississippi River into Tennessee after injuring one along its 89.4 mile path. An F1 tornado then moved directly through Killeen, Texas, injuring one. This was followed by a strong F3 tornado that injured 17 east of East Prairie, Missouri.

The next day, an F2 tornado northeast of Allsboro, Alabama injured. March 22 then produced destructive and deadly tornado activity. An F1 tornado struck Willow Crest and Southern Poland, Ohio south of Youngstown, injuring three. Later, the one fatal tornado of the outbreak touched down and struck West Chester, Caswallen, West Goshen, Malvern, and Paoli, Pennsylvania killing one. The final tornado was a brief, but unusually strong F2 tornado in Shaftsbury, Vermont, although there were no casualties. In the end, the outbreak killed one and injured 26.

April

There were 99 tornadoes confirmed in the US in April.

April 5–6

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	1	2	5	3	0	0

Nine destructive tornadoes touched down in Texas. On April 5, a long-tracked F2 tornado moved through Stamford before tracking 43.7 miles through rural areas into the northwest side of Woodson, injuring six. The next day, another long-tracked F3 tornado hit Sherman, Bells, Savoy, Ector, Bonham, and Dodd City, killing one and injuring 27. This was followed by another F3 tornado hit Antelope, Shannon, and the western side of Newport, although there were no casualties. A third F3 tornado moved through the south side of Gainesville before hitting Woodbine without any casualties. This was followed by yet another long-tracked F2 tornado that hit Sanger, Lake Ray Roberts, Pilot Point, and the north side of Van Alstyne, injuring one. Overall, the Texas tornadoes killed one and injured 36. Two additional weak tornadoes later touched down struck South Carolina, and even California as well.

April 11–14

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	6	3	4	1	0	0

A tornado outbreak affected the Great Plains and the Southeast. The only tornado to cause casualties was an F3 storm that moved directly through Frankston, Texas into Blackburn Bay on April 12, injuring seven. The same day, a long-tracked F2 tornado moved east-northeast through the south side of Mendenhall, Mississippi before striking Sylvarena and Mulberry along its 57.6 mile path. An even longer-tracked F2 tornado then touched down in Bethel, Mississippi and moved north, which caused Sylvarena to be hit again. It then hit Buckleytown and Sebastopol before turning northeast and hitting Dixon, Southeastern Philadelphia, and Coy. The tornado then lifted after being on the ground for 112.8 miles. Neither of these tornadoes caused casualties. Overall, 14 tornadoes touched down, injuring seven people.

April 21–24

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	2	10	12	2	1	0

A tornado outbreak sequence consisting of four tornado outbreaks over four days impacted the Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains. On April 21, the first tornado of the outbreak struck the eastern side of White Hall, Arkansas at F2 strength, killing one and injuring two. Later on, another F2 tornado hit Selmont-West Selmont south of Selma, Alabama, injuring one. The next day, a strong F3 tornado moved through rural New Madrid County, Missouri, injuring 10. Later, a brief F1 tornado injured two on the east side of Duncan, Oklahoma. On April 23, an F2 tornado hit Isadora, Missouri, injuring one. Later, a large F3 tornado moved through rural Ringgold with no casualties.

Tornado activity abruptly ramped up overnight into the morning on April 24. An F2 tornado struck Graball and Rock Bridge, Tennessee, although there were no casualties. This was not the case in Alabama, where the tornado of the outbreak occurred. A violent F4 tornado tore through rural areas of Morgan County before moving directly through Falkville. Five people were killed and 20 were injured. That afternoon, the final tornado of the outbreak than touched down on the east side of Richmond, Kentucky at F1 strength, injuring two. Overall, 27 tornadoes touched down, killing six and injuring 29.

May

147 tornadoes were confirmed in the US in May.

May 5–6

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	1	3	4	0	0	0

Eight scattered destructive tornadoes impacted North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, and Kansas. On May 5, a brief but strong F2 tornado hit Pecos, Texas, injuring one. The next day, a fatal F2 tornado moved directly through Temple, Texas, killing one and injuring another. Overall, the seven tornadoes killed one and injured two.

May 24

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	1	1	0	0	0	0

Two weak, but damaging and even deadly tornadoes struck Georgia. The first tornado moved directly through Marietta at F1 strength, although there were no casualties. Surprisingly, the F0 tornado then touched down about 2.5 hours later and actually killed three people southwest of Thomson. As of 2020, this is the deadliest F0/EF0 tornado in US history. Overall, the two weak tornadoes caused major damage and three fatalities.

May 25–26

Main article: 1955 Great Plains tornado outbreak

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	12	17	12	2	1	2

46 tornadoes touched down in an intense two-day outbreak across the Great Plains and Arkansas. On May 25, a large, long-tracked 1100-yard wide F4 tornado passed west of Aberdeen, Texas before moving into Oklahoma, turning northeast and striking the north side of Sweetwater, killing two and injuring 18. Later, a large, .25 mile wide F3 tornado hit Deer Creek, Oklahoma, injuring one. Soon afterwards, the most violent tornadoes of the year occured as two large F5 tornadoes touched down within 34 minutes of each other. The first F5 tornado was 500 yards wide and struck the towns of Blackwell, Oklahoma and South Haven, Kansas, killing 20 and injuring 280 on its 28.4 mile path. After that, an even larger, longer-tracked, and deadlier F5 tornado touched down near Peckham, Oklahoma and moved into Kansas. It grew to 1320 yards wide and hit the towns of Ashton, Oxford, Udall, and Rock and Atlanta, killing 80 and injuring 273 along its 56.4 mile path. The 100 deaths accounted for about 77.5% of the fatalities in 1955.

The next day, featured weaker, but more numerous tornado activity (30 tornadoes compared to 16 the day before), with the two worst tornadoes occurring in Arkansas. A large, 1000 yard F3 tornado Jessieville, and Paron, injuring three. Later, an F2 tornado hit Weldon, injuring seven. In the end, the violent outbreak killed 102 and injured 593.

June

There were 153 tornadoes confirmed in the US in June.

June 4–5

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	23	15	4	2	2	0

46 tornadoes touched down across the Great Plains and Michigan with most of them occurring in Kansas. Incredibly, despite several tornadoes being intense and long-tracked, there were no casualties.

June 27

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	5	0	0	1	1	0

Seven scattered tornadoes touched down across the US with both significant tornadoes causing casualties. Two people were killed and 32 others were injured.

July

There were 49 tornadoes confirmed in the US in July.

July 1–9

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	4	12	5	2	3	0

The first nine days of July produced 26 scattered tornadoes causing varying degrees of damage and casualties across the US. There were four fatalities and 48 injuries.

July 15

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	0	2	0	0	0	0

F1 tornadoes struck Michigan and Oklahoma with the one in Oklahoma killing one and injuring two.

August

There were 33 tornadoes confirmed in the US in August.

September

There were 15 tornadoes confirmed in the US in September.

September 16–17

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	0	1	0	0	0	0

An isolated F1 tornado killed one in Minnesota. Two more F1 tornadoes touched down in Minnesota and Nebraska the next day.

September 22

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	1	0	0	0	0	0

An F0 tornado killed one in Kansas. This was the second F0 tornado in 1955 to cause fatalities.

October

There were 23 tornadoes confirmed in the US in October.

October 28–29

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	1	0	4	1	0	0

A tornado outbreak produced five significant tornadoes in the Southeast. However, it was the F0 tornado that killed one and injured two in Georgia, the third F0 to cause fatalities in the US in 1955 and the second to happen in Georgia. Overall, the six tornadoes killed one and injured four.

November

There were 20 tornadoes confirmed in the US in November.

November 15–16

FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5
0	1	7	5	5	0	0

A destructive and deadly outbreak of 16 tornadoes impacted the Mississippi Valley. One person was killed and 35 others were injured.

December

There were 3 tornadoes confirmed in the US in December.