National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Severe Thunderstorm Threat From the Central Plains to the Northeast; Extreme HeatRisk for the East Coast

Strong to severe thunderstorms are possible from the central Plains to the Northeast through this evening. Widespread damaging winds are the primary threat but hail and a tornado or two is also possible. Extremely dangerous heat continues across the Eastern U.S. Warm overnight low temperatures will provide little to no relief. 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.