National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Tropical Moisture Producing Heavy Rain in Portions of the Western U.S., Southeast Florida, and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Heavy rain and flash flooding will continue across portions of California, the Southwest, and parts of the Southern Rockies. Strong to locally severe thunderstorms and heavy rain will impact portions of the Plains and Mississippi Valley. Tropical moisture is causing heavy rainfall in southeast Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Read More >

April 3, 1956
Counties:  Washington IN
F-scale:  F2
Deaths:  0
Injuries:  12
Path width:  150 yards
Path length:  23 miles
Time:  5:45pm
Grazulis Narrative:  Moved northeast from seven miles southwest of Salem to near Little York.  A large bridge five miles southwest of Salem was moved.  Over a hundred buildings were damaged or destroyed.  A church and a school were struck at Canton.  A freezer was reportedly carried half a mile from the home site.  Newspapers called this a "barnado" because of the large number of barns destroyed.  One of the women injured in this tornado would be killed by another tornado on March 19, 1963.
Noted discrepancies:  SPC and NCDC list this as an F2, Grazulis says F3.  SPC gives a path length of 1/10 of a mile...NCDC gives nothing...Grazulis gives 15 miles...Storm Data gives 23 miles.  SPC gives a path width of 10 yards...NCDC gives nothing...Grazulis and Storm Data say 150 yards.  SPC and NCDC list only a touchdown point...no lift-off point is given.