Tornado outbreak of April 15, 1958
On Tuesday, April 15, 1958, a tornado outbreak produced severe weather over peninsular Florida and part of neighboring Georgia. A total of five tornadoes occurred, a few of which produced F3-level damage; one twister, in Polk County, Florida, was officially ranked F4, one of only two such Florida events on record, but its rating was contested by tornado historian Thomas P. Grazulis. The only other F4 tornado to hit Florida occurred on April 4, 1966, also in Polk County, near Gibsonia and Galloway. In total, 36 people were injured during the outbreak, but no deaths were directly related to the tornadoes. However, four airmen flying through a severe thunderstorm in the Tampa Bay area went missing following the crash of their jet and were presumed dead.
Confirmed tornadoes
Prior to 1990, there is a likely undercount of tornadoes, particularly E/F0–1, with reports of weaker tornadoes becoming more common as population increased. A sharp increase in the annual average E/F0–1 count by approximately 200 tornadoes was noted upon the implementation of NEXRAD Doppler weather radar in 1990–1991. 1974 marked the first year where significant tornado counts became homogenous with contemporary values, attributed to the consistent implementation of Fujita scale assessments. Numerous discrepancies on the details of tornadoes in this outbreak exist between sources. The total count of tornadoes and ratings differs from various agencies accordingly. The list below documents information from the most contemporary official sources alongside assessments from Grazulis.| Color / symbol | Description |
| † | Data from Grazulis 1990/1993/2001b |
| ¶ | Data from newspapers |
| ※ | Data from the 1958 Climatological Data National Summary publication |
| ‡ | Data from the NCEI database |
| ♯ | Maximum width of tornado |
| ± | Tornado was rated below F2 intensity by Grazulis but a specific rating is unavailable. |
Mullet Key–Piney Point–Sun City–Gulf City–Ruskin–Wimauma, Florida
This tornado affected areas in and near Fort DeSoto, Piney Point, Sun City, Gulf City, Ruskin, and Wimauma. Winds of attended the tornado on Mullet Key, extensively damaging bathhouses and outbuildings. Half of one bathhouse was torn off, an airplane's wing was bent out of shape, a shed was wrecked, and the metal roof of a museum was blown away. At Piney Point nine pump houses were pulled out of their concrete foundations and blown away. In and near this area, along the Manatee–Hillsborough county line, fragments of a shed were carried ; bits of tin were twisted around utility poles and lofted into treetops; and six mature oak trees were prostrated, a few of which fell onto a house, penetrating the roof and ceiling above the living room, and caused glass to shatter. Metal roofing slats were torn off a tractor shed as well. A newly-built barn in Ruskin was shifted off its foundation, and a 14-year-old girl was injured while reacting to the approach of the tornado. Fencing, signage, and trees were felled. A swath of debris was noted just south of Sun City.One B-47 bomber, departing from MacDill Air Force Base at around 9:30 a.m. local time, was destroyed when it encountered the parent thunderstorm. The plane unsuccessfully attempted to fly at lower altitudes and avoid it, but instead caught fire above the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and disintegrated. Its four crew members were not found and presumed dead, a few of whom had excelled in navigation and bombing examinations by the Strategic Air Command. Parts of the aircraft were found on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge; other parts, including most of the aircraft, landed in Tampa Bay. Eyewitnesses reported that the aircraft resembled "'a huge ball of fire, like a comet'".