Excerpt from Cooperative Economic Insect Report, Vol. 7: May 31, 1957
The tornado which swept through the suburbs of Kansas City, Mo., on the 20th brought death to 37 and injury to over 200 persons, while on the following day when a series of twisters struck southern and eastern portions of the same state, some 14 additional deaths were reported. Also 4 persons were killed at Lawton, Okla. A few other areas where tornadoes struck during the week were Harris and Staples, Minn.; Peck, Kan Clovis, New Mex and Midland, Tex.
Thls storm activity, as well as torrential downpours which occurred in this area, were the result of unstable air mass conditions which generally extended from central Texas into the Great Lakes region. These conditions resulted when cold air, pushing in behind cyclonic centers which intensified over the central Rocky Mountains and moved northeastward, interacted with the warm, moist air covering the Southeast.
For the second consecutive week precipitation was recorded at most stations, and weekly totals were moderate to heavy over a vast portion of the country. Areas with light amounts were confined primarily to the states west of the Divide, the Southwest, and isolated spots along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Rivers and streams continued to overflow in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and local flooding was observed in Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee as excessive rains fell in sections of these states. In Tennessee, severe flooding in Lake and Dyer Counties on Thursday resulted in an estimated 3 million dollar damage to crops. Extremely heavy weekly totals reported this week included inches at Fort Worth, Tex.; inches at Little Rock, Ark.; inches at Shawnee, Okla.; inches at Owensboro, Ky. In other areas inches was observed at Macon, Ga and at Rapid City, S. Dak.
Weekly temperature averages were generally below normal west of a line extending from southwestern Texas to northwestern Michigan. Elsewhere to the east Of the line they were above, except for a small area incorporating New York, northern and eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and portions of Maryland and Delaware. Departures were greatest in Utah where they averaged -11 to - 12 and in central Alabama where they were as much as Minimum temperatures dropped to freezing or below on one or more nights in sections of the Dakotas, eastern Montana, and western Minnesota, but at other low elevations they remained above 32 throughout the week.
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