On May 23–24, 1946, a tornado outbreak occurred across the Central and

Midwestern The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

United States. Over two days at least 15 significant tornadoes struck parts of

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, killing four people and injuring 42 others. The storm system also caused numerous other impacts including

hail Hail is a form of solid Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailsto ...

, heavy rains, and damaging

lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

strikes.

Confirmed tornadoes

This weather event happened before the invention of an official ratings system for tornadoes in 1950. The events were later assessed by tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis, and rated unofficially on the

Fujita scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...

. Grazulis documented 15 significant tornadoes (F2+), but the true number of tornadoes for this outbreak is most likely higher.

May 23 event

May 24 event

Non-tornadic impacts

A hailstorm impacted

York County, Nebraska York County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 14,125. Its county seat is York, Nebraska, York. In the Vehicle registration plates of Nebraska, Nebraska lic ...

on May 23, causing $50,000 in damage to wheat crops. An

electrical storm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

struck

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

and surrounding areas which damaged several structures from

strikes. Rainfall led to flooding which caused damage to crops in

Haigler, Nebraska Haigler is a village in southwestern Dundy County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 158 at the 2010 census. History Haigler was platted in 1886. It was named for Jacob Haigler, a pioneer settler. Geography According to the United ...

Notes

References

{{reflist 1946 meteorology

1946 1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...