May 20 is known as “Cyclone Day” in Codell, Kansas. The name is in reference to the phenomena of tornadoes (cyclones) hitting the Codell community in 1916, 1917 and 1918...all on May 20th.

Each of the tornadoes was larger than the previous year’s storm. First was a F2, then a F3, and the last a devastating F4. The 1916 and 1917 tornadoes hit the rural community surrounding Codell in the early evening. In 1918, the town of Codell took a direct hit from the F4 tornado that was secluded by the dark of night.

After the storms of 1916 and 1917, residents were weary of May 20, 1918. A resident of the community, Celesta Glendening, wrote the following, "May the 20th, 1918 dawned bright and clear, but it was cold for this time of year. This was Cyclone Day, so called because on the same date in the two previous years, 1916 and 1917, a tornado (or cyclone we called it then) had swept through our community, and I am sure there was not a family in Codell and for miles around that had not remembered and wondered if it would live up to its name on this day. Well, it did, in less than twelve hours another cyclone had struck and left death and destruction in its path, by far the worst cyclone of the three." Eight lives were lost in the 1918 tornado; five of them children.

Codell’s Cyclone Day has been referenced by Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Reader’s Digest (April 1977), and National Weather Service. The three strike phenomena has also been mentioned in Tornadoes of the United States by Snowden Dwight Flora, THE TORNADO: NATURE'S ULTIMATE WINDSTORM by Thomas P. Grazulis and many other meteorological publications.

About the Author

My Great Grandparents had farms north of Codell during the Codell cyclone days. My Grandparents were teenagers living on those farms, none of which were impacted by the tornadoes. My Great-Great Grandparents lived in Codell from 1912-1918. They left Codell for Natoma just months before the May 20, 1918 tornado hit Codell.