This violent tornado was part of an outbreak tornadoes that occurred in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri during the evening and early morning of April 2-3, 1956. It struck around midnight near Narcissa, OK in Ottawa County and moved northeast, hitting the towns of Miami and Quapaw, OK. In all, 21 homes were destroyed and 35 were heavily damaged in Miami. Five homes were destroyed in Quapaw. Property damage was estimated at $500,000 in Oklahoma. No fatalities were reported in Oklahoma, but 46 persons were injured in Miami, with 16 of people being hospitalized and 3 sustaining critical injuries.

The tornado continued northeast across the Kansas state line where additional damage was done in Cherokee County. The tornado struck the Southeast Corner of Cherokee and the southeast edge of Baxter Springs. Damage estimates were $125,000 in Kansas as 14 homes were destroyed and another 13 were damaged. A total of 6 people were injured by the tornado in Kansas.

This tornado then became a "tri-state tornado" when it crossed into Missouri in Jasper County. It passed west of Joplin and Web City, eventually dissipating in north central Jasper County. Two people were injured in Missouri and damages totaled $100,000. The tornado destroyed a factory roof, damaged merchandise, destroyed some garages, and damaged 30 houses.

A tornado moved northeastward and cut a swath of destruction from just east of Vinita in Craig County, to northwest of Afton, southeast of Miami, and near the Oklahoma/Missouri state line at the Will Rogers turnpike (U.S. Interstate Highway I-44) gate where it dissipated in Ottawa County. Many farmsteads were destroyed along the tornado's path. One farmer estimated a loss of $70,000 to a new brick home, outbuildings, a car, a truck, machinery, livestock, etc. Two truckloads of boats were destroyed on U.S. Interstate Highway I-44 northeast of Vinita. The truck drivers were slightly injured and the loss to the boats, etc. was estimated at $91,000. The approach of the storm was visible and most people were able to reach storm shelters. Hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter caused widespread crop and property damage over the southern half of Ottawa County.

A tornado was reported 2 miles northeast of Vinita in Craig County at 6:40 pm CST. It continued northeastward along an intermittent path as it lifted and touched down multiple times. The tornado touched down at the U.S. Interstate Highway I-44 turnpike gate just north of Afton in Ottawa County and continued to the northeast over mostly open country to the southeastern edge of Miami. Several vehicles were blown off the road at Afton and 3 miles south of Miami. At the latter point a car was lifted and hit the top of a telephone pole, leaving paint chips on the pole as evidence. The car was hurled a total of 150 yards and the family of 3 inside were injured. Another 5 people were injured in the community of Fairland south of Miami. About 8 farms sustained damage including the destruction of 7 farm homes. A number of other homes were also damaged.

A tornado touched down about 2 miles northeast of Bluejacket in Craig County where it destroyed a barn and damaged several other farm buildings. The tornado moved northeastward and destroyed or damaged several other farm buildings. Five homes and 3 mobile homes were destroyed just southeast of the Mound Valley community about 5 miles southwest of Miami in Ottawa County. Three minor injuries were reported.

A tornado touched down about 4 miles north of Pensacola in Mayes County at 4:50 pm CST and moved northeastward along a nearly continuous path. At 5:20 pm CST, it leveled a mini-mart near Ketchum and the intersection of OK State Highways 82 and 85 in Craig County. Four people were injured by flying debris in the Ketchum area in Craig County as the tornado progressed to the northeast. Three of the injured were inside one car, and the fourth was hospitalized with severe lacerations.

The tornado then moved through the Cleora area to Bernice along the western shores of Grand Lake in Delaware County before dissipating in southern Ottawa County at 5:45 pm CST. Twenty residences were damaged in the Grand Lake resort area south of Cleora, and one mobile home park was destroyed at Bernice. One man was treated for injuries after he was pummeled by baseball size hail, but he was not hospitalized. For the entire path of the tornado, a total of 11 homes were destroyed, 6 other homes had major damage, and 40 homes received minor damage. In addition, a total of 28 mobile homes were destroyed while 25 more were damaged. Hail ranging from golf ball to baseball size was reported with the storm. The tornado was occasionally multi-vortex in nature as some people reported seeing 3 funnels while others saw only one funnel.

This violent tornado developed at 4:20 pm CST in northeastern Craig County and continued into Ottawa County. The tornado moved rapidly eastward toward the town of Picher, OK where it destroyed about 200 homes, killed six people, and injured another 150 people at about 540 pm. Damage in and around Picher was rated EF-4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

The tornado began moving more southeasterly near Picher and struck the north side of Quapaw, OK. While this tornado was beginning to weaken east of Quapaw, the supercell produced another tornado a few miles east-northeast of Quapaw that merged with this tornado just east of U.S. Interstate Highway I-44. After the merger of the two tornadoes, a single tornadic circulation re-intensified and became about a mile wide for several miles before moving into Newton County, MO.

The EF-4 tornado crossed into Missouri just north of Iris Road, and tracked east southeast all the way across Newton County to just north of Fairview, MO. Several people were killed in automobiles, including a firefighter who was storm spotting, as the tornado briefly reached EF-4 intensity near the intersection of MO State Highway 43 and Iris Road. One vehicle at this location was thrown 5/8s of a mile. The tornado then extended to a mile wide and EF-3 intensity as it tracked across the intersection of State Highway 86 and State Highway BB.

Many of the 14 fatalities and 200 injuries occurred from just west of MO State Highway 43 to MO State Highway 86. The communities of Granby, MO and Newtonia, MO were also directly impacted from this tornado. The tornado weakened to EF-2 intensity as it tracked across much of Barry County, but it remained deadly as it directly impacted the community of Purdy, MO. One man was killed as he was taking shelter in a mobile home.

Numerous structures, trees, and power poles were destroyed. Damage was estimated at $15.6 million in Oklahoma and $60.6 million in Missouri. This was the first EF-4 tornado to occur in Oklahoma since the Enhanced Fujita Scale was adopted by the National Weather Service in 2007.

The tornado began at 4:29 pm CST (5:29 pm CDT) over open country southwest of a ranch home 3.4 miles southwest of Quapaw, OK. The first damage from the tornado was that ranch home, which lost numerous shingles, a nearby barn was damaged, a mobile home had siding removed, and large tree limbs were snapped in this area. The tornado moved northeast and snapped several power poles and hardwood trees. Based on photographs, the tornado had very little condensation associated with it until it neared U.S. Highway 69a just outside of Quapaw, where it snapped trees and destroyed a barn.

The tornado then moved into the town, where it severely damaged several metal building structures, including the fire station. Numerous homes were severely damaged, and several had their roofs blown off. Several buildings in town were destroyed. Many areas of damage in Quapaw were rated EF-2.

Two people were in a vehicle that was parked against one of those buildings, in an attempt to take shelter from the approaching tornado. The brick and concrete walls of the building collapsed on top of the vehicle, crushing it and killing a 68-year-old male and injuring a female.

Several other vehicles in this area were damaged from flying debris. About a dozen injuries occurred in town, 7 of which were serious enough to warrant being transported to medical facilities. Numerous trees and power poles were snapped. The tornado continued to move northeast from Quapaw, snapping numerous trees and power poles, and damaging homes and outbuildings.

The tornado crossed the state line into Kansas at 4:25 pm CST and moved into the town of Baxter Springs, producing a 150-yard-wide swath of damage from southwest to northeast through the center of the town. Numerous homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed in Baxter Springs, and 25 injuries were reported. Several areas of EF-2 damage were noted, with areas of EF-0 and EF-1 damage surrounding the more significant damage swath.

The tornado dissipated at 4:42 pm CST, 2.5 miles northeast of Baxter Springs, KS. Local emergency management in Kansas reported 25 injuries with 9 of those people being hospitalized. The total path of the tornado was 7 miles in Oklahoma and another 4.3 miles in Kansas. The maximum width of the tornado was 325 yards in Oklahoma and 150 yards wide in the Baxter Springs, KS area.

Severe thunderstorms developed during the evening of the April 2nd near a stationary frontal boundary that extended across northeastern Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas. A very unstable air mass over the region coupled with strong vertical wind shear resulted in some supercell thunderstorm structures. The storms produced hail up to golfball size, wind gusts of up to 80 mph, and a damaging tornado.

In Craig County, the tornado first damaged barns and trees at the S 440 Road. It moved east-southeast snapping or uprooting trees and damaging barns and outbuildings along the E 200 Road, the S 440 Road, and the E 230 Road before crossing U.S. Interstate Highway I-44, where it blew over two tractor trailers, injuring the driver of one of them. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 95 to 105 mph. The tornado continued into Ottawa County, Oklahoma.

In Ottawa County, the tornado moved through open country and then crossed Highway 60 where it threw several round hay bales. It destroyed barns and outbuildings, damaged several homes, and snapped or uprooted numerous trees as it crossed the S 510 Road and S 520 Road. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 95 to 105 mph.

The tornado crossed into Delaware County near the S 520 Road. Trees were snapped or uprooted, barns and outbuildings were damaged, and homes were damaged as it approached the north end of Grand Lake from the west-northwest. It destroyed a private boat dock on the lake then moved through a community of houses to the east of the lake, resulting in damage to the roofs of homes as well as tree damage. The tornado dissipated to the east of this community in open country. Based on this damage, estimated maximum wind in this segment of the tornado was 95 to 105 mph.

A strong, upper-level disturbance translated from the Southern Rockies into the Southern Plains on May 16, 2015. Very moist and unstable air was in place across the Southern Plains as this system approached. Severe thunderstorms developed over western Oklahoma and northwestern Texas during the afternoon and moved eastward into eastern Oklahoma in the late evening. By the time the storms reached eastern Oklahoma, a well-organized squall line had evolved but due to very strong low level wind shear, multiple tornadoes occurred across the area along with widespread damaging wind. Locally heavy rainfall resulted in flash flooding in some areas through the early morning hours of May 17th.

This tornado developed just south of the E 230 Road and moved north-northeast destroying a mobile home, destroying several outbuildings, and snapping or uprooting trees. As the tornado approached the E 190 Road near the S 600 Road, it turned more to the northeast. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted, a home was damaged, and outbuildings were damaged between the E 190 Road and Grand Lake. After moving over Grand Lake, the tornado damaged chicken houses and snapped or uprooted trees before dissipating east of Highway 10 near the E 160 Road. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 95 to 105 mph.