National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rainfall in the Southern Plains; Heat Continues in the West

Strong to severe thunderstorms may bring areas of excessive rainfall and flooding over parts of the southern Plains today through Friday. Hot to dangerously hot temperatures are forecast across portions of the Pacific Northwest and southern Great Basin today. Gusty winds, dry, and hot conditions will bring critical fire weather to parts of central Washington state today. 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.