Tomorrow May 20th, 60th anniversity of worst tornando to ever hit KC Metro (Kansas City: neighborhood)

[nunusguy]

Overview


Since 1950, more than 300 tornadoes have been reported in the area now served by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Pleasant Hill. The majority of tornadoes have been classified as weak to moderate tornadoes, the most common types of tornadoes to affect all parts of the United States. On rare occasions, less than 20 percent based on official records, the Kansas City area and the surrounding area has experienced significant tornadoes. The most destructive and deadly of these tornadoes occurred on the evening of May 20, 1957. The tornado event of May 20, 1957 thereafter earned the local moniker of the Ruskin Heights tornado due to the extreme devastation and loss of life that occurred in this Kansas City neighborhood.



"Ruskin Heights Tornado"



Though labeled the Ruskin Heights tornado, the tornado actually began its 71 mile path near Williamsburg, Kansas at 6:15 pm LST. Below is an image taken from the cover of the official damage report of the "Kansas-Missouri" tornado. Though post-mortems of major tornado events are common today, only two damage reports were conducted for tornadoes in 1957, one of them for "Kansas-Missouri" or Ruskin Heights tornado. The tornado earned the most extreme damage rating of that time, F5, as it carved a path ranging from one-tenth to nearly one-half mile wide (700 yards) sped northeast at approximately 42 miles per hour. The Ruskin Heights tornado was one of thirty-five confirmed tornadoes that impacted areas of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri on May 20, 1957, including a devastating tornado accompanied by hail seven inches in diameter that struck Concordia, Kansas. The spotter network that in the present day provides such valuable information to the National Weather Service was not in place in 1957, explaining the sparsity of hail and damaging wind reports displayed in the graphic report.
Ruskin Heights Tornado of May 20 1957

[Mad Anthonie]

This aerial photo taken on June 10, 1957 shows the path of destruction in Ruskin Heights. It is from a series of aerial photos taken of all of Jackson County.



The complete series is available here...

Jackson County Aerial Photographs, 1957 :: Aerial Photograph Collection

The Jackson County path of this tornado can be seen on the following images in that collection:
5T-154
5T-142
5T-144
5T-058
5T-056
5T-040
5T-042
4T-184
4T-182
4T-160