In the evening hours of May 20, 1957, a large, long-tracked and deadly tornado moved through portions of eastern Kansas and western Missouri, killing forty-four people and injuring over five hundred.

As it passed near Spring Hill, the tornado leveled numerous buildings and killed seven people before crossing state lines into Missouri, where the worst damage was observed in the Martin City area.

The tornado left an estimated eighty-five percent of Martin City "uninhabitable", and killed another thirty-seven people before dissipating at 8:53 p.m., over an hour after touching down.

Early on May 20, a 75-to-80-knot (86 to 92 mph; 139 to 148 km/h) mid-level jet stream bisected dew points of 65 °F (18 °C), coincident with a 986-millibar (29.1 inHg) low-pressure area and warm front over southeastern Nebraska.

Soundings and surface weather observations indicated a robust, unstable warm sector, showing 3,000 J/kg of surface-based convective available potential energy (CAPE) and the presence of strong wind shear, all which favored the development of supercells.

Subsequent updates covered much of the eastern Great Plains, from the Green Country to southeastern Nebraska.

Some areas were reportedly "swept clean", and a newly built brick school in Ruskin Heights was badly damaged; 85% of Martin City was uninhabitable.