The Joplin tornado was an extremely devastating EF5 tornado that struck the city of Joplin, Missouri during the early evening hours of May 22, 2011, causing catastrophic damage to Joplin and surrounding regions. As part of a larger late-May sequence of tornadic activity, the extremely violent tornado began just west of Joplin at about 5:34 p.m. CDT (UTC–05:00) and quickly reached a peak width of nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) as it tracked through the southern part of the city, before later impacting rural Jasper and Newton counties and dissipating after 38 minutes on the ground at 6:12 p.m. The tornado was on the ground for a total of 21.62 miles (34.79 km).
The tornado devastated a large portion of the city of Joplin, damaging nearly 8,000 buildings and destroying over 4,000 houses. The damage—which included major facilities like one of Joplin's two hospitals as well as much of its basic infrastructure—amounted to a total of $2.8 billion (equivalent to about $4 billion today), making the Joplin tornado the costliest single tornado in U.S. history. The insurance payout was the highest in Missouri history, breaking the previous $2 billion record from the hailstorm of April 10, 2001. The tornado was the fifth out of six total EF5 tornadoes that occurred in 2011, with four having occurred a month earlier during the 2011 Super Outbreak, and only two days before the same outbreak sequence produced another EF5 tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma on May 24.
Overall, the tornado killed 158 people (including eight indirect deaths) and injured some 1,150 others, making it the deadliest tornado of 2011. It ranks as the deadliest tornado in Missouri in addition to being one of the deadliest in the United States, having the highest death toll since the Glazier–Woodward F5 tornado in Texas and Oklahoma in 1947 and the seventh-deadliest overall in the U.S. It was the first F5/EF5 tornado to occur in Missouri since May 20, 1957, when an F5 tornado destroyed several suburbs of Kansas City, and only the second F5/EF5 tornado in Missouri since 1950. It was the third tornado to strike Joplin since May 5, 1971.
In the aftermath, President Barack Obama toured the city on May 29, speaking at a memorial service for the victims. He would also deliver the commencement address at Joplin High School a year later in 2012. Services were set up to help rebuild, with most of the town having businesses reopen as well as new ones being built by 2018. Additionally, the tornado helped inspire FEMA to create the Waffle House Index for disaster preparations as a result of some locations remaining open during the storm.
Meteorological synopsis
On the evening of May 21, 2011, an area of low pressure developed, centered over western South Dakota. This feature, in addition to steep lapse rates and dewpoints above 60 °F (16 °C), was conducive to the supercell development later in the day. Very large hail was forecasted, but the tornado threat was predicted to remain isolated. At 8:00 a.m. CDT (13:00 UTC), the National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center (SPC) issued a slight risk of severe storms for much of the upper Plains and the Midwest.
By 8:00 a.m. CDT (13:00 UTC) on May 22, forecasters at the SPC realized that a more intense weather outbreak was likely to occur, and upgraded a large swath of the Midwest to a moderate risk. The system was forecast to evolve into a wave early Monday morning as a trough strengthened from the western United States. At the surface, a cold front was forecast to pass through the region later in the day, while a dryline was forecast to intersect the cold front in Kansas. These features, accompanied by the low-pressure system, encouraged very strong storm development along the cold front. By the 11:30 a.m. CDT (16:00 UTC) updated outlook, certainty had grown stronger that a major severe weather event would occur that afternoon. A public severe weather outlook was issued at this time, and the outlook stated that severe weather was expected that afternoon, with tornadoes, large hail and strong winds all named as threats.
At 1:30 p.m. CDT (18:30 UTC), four hours prior to the tornado, the SPC issued a tornado watch for southwestern Missouri, to remain in effect until 9:00 p.m. CDT. The watch predicted "explosive thunderstorm development," with a "strong tornado or two possible." Thunderstorms began developing between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. over southeast Kansas and quickly became severe. As thunderstorm development continued moving to the east, forecasters became more concerned about imminent tornado development. A tornado warning west of Joplin that eventually produced the EF5 tornado was first issued at 5:17 p.m. CDT (22:17 UTC), 17 minutes before it touched ground and 19 minutes before it entered the city of Joplin.
Tornado summary, track and damage
Beginning
The tornado first touched down in Newton County, Missouri, just east of the Missouri–Kansas state line, approximately one-half mile (0.80 km) southwest of the intersection of South Central City Road and 32nd Street, at 5:34 p.m. CDT (22:34 UTC). Eyewitnesses and storm chasers reported multiple vortices rotating around the parent circulation. Here, the tornado downed several large trees at EF0 intensity. Civil defense sirens sounded in Joplin twenty minutes before the tornado struck, in response to the tornado warning issued at 5:17 p.m. CDT (22:17 UTC) for northwestern Newton and southwestern Jasper counties in Missouri, and southeastern portions of Cherokee County, Kansas, but many Joplin residents did not heed the warning or the sirens.
The tornado moved east-northeast and strengthened to EF1 intensity as it continued through rural areas towards Joplin, snapping trees and power poles and damaging outbuildings. The tornado then widened and tracked into the more densely populated southwest corner of the city near the Twin Hills Country Club. The tornado heavily damaged several homes at a subdivision in this area at up to EF3 strength before continuing to move through another subdivision just east of Iron Gates Road. Numerous homes were destroyed and multiple vehicles tossed around, some of which were thrown onto or rolled into homes.
EF5 intensity in Joplin
The tornado reached EF4 intensity just before crossing S. Schifferdecker Ave. The now massive and wedge-shaped tornado then crossed S. Schifferdecker Ave. at 5:38 p.m. CDT (22:38 UTC), producing its first area of EF4 damage just four minutes after touching down, as several small but well-built commercial buildings were flattened. One person was killed after they were ejected from their car as the tornado crossed the road. Further strengthening resulted in the tornado reaching EF5 intensity shortly afterwards. Consistent EF4 to EF5 damage was noted east of S. Schifferdecker Ave. and continued through most of southern Joplin. Numerous homes, businesses, and medical buildings were flattened in this area, with concrete walls crushed into the foundations. A large steel-reinforced step and floor structure leading to a completely destroyed medical building was "deflected upward several inches and cracked". Steel trusses from some of the buildings were "rolled up like paper", and deformation or twisting of the main support beams was noted. Multiple vehicles were thrown and mangled or wrapped around trees nearby. Several 300-pound (140 kg) concrete parking stops anchored with rebar were torn from a parking lot in this area and thrown up to 60 yards (55 m) away. Iowa State University wind engineer Partha Sarkar calculated the force needed to remove the parking stops from the lot and found that winds exceeding 200 mph (320 km/h) would have been required.
Damage became widespread and catastrophic at and around the nearby St. John's Regional Medical Center, which lost nearly every window on three sides, interior walls, ceilings, and part of its roof; its life flight helicopter was also blown away and destroyed. Loss of backup power caused five fatalities, and the building was damaged so severely that it was rendered completely non-functional and was later torn down. According to the NWS office in Springfield, Missouri, such extreme structural damage to such a large and well-built structure likely indicated winds at or exceeding 200 mph (320 km/h). Vehicles in the hospital parking lot were thrown into the air and mangled beyond recognition, including a semi-truck that was tossed 125 yards (114 m) and wrapped completely around a debarked tree. Small pieces of debris from the hospital, including X-rays, medical reports, and dental records, were found in Greene and Polk counties many miles to the east. Wind-rowing of debris was noted in this area, and more concrete parking stops were removed from the St. John's parking lot. Virtually every house near McClelland Boulevard and 26th Street was flattened; some were swept completely away, and trees sustained severe debarking.
Peak intensity
As the tornado tracked eastward, it maintained EF5 strength as it crossed Main Street (Route 43) between 20th and 26th Streets. It heavily damaged every business along that stretch and virtually destroyed several institutional buildings. Despite destroying entire neighborhoods in the area with some more homes swept away, the tornado tracked just south of downtown, narrowly missing it. At some residences, reinforced concrete porches were deformed or, in some cases, completely torn away. Numerous vehicles were tossed up to several blocks, and a few homeowners never located their vehicles. A large church, a nursing home, Franklin Technology Center, St. Mary's Catholic Church and School, and Joplin High School were all destroyed along this corridor. The Greenbriar Nursing Home was completely leveled, with 21 fatalities occurring there alone, with dozens of fatalities occurring elsewhere in this area as well. Nobody was in the high school at the time, as the graduation ceremonies held about three miles (5 km) to the north at Missouri Southern State University had concluded shortly before the storm. Pieces of cardboard were found embedded in stucco walls that remained standing at Joplin High School. Steel beams and pieces of fencing were deeply embedded into the ground in fields near the high school, steel fence posts were bent to the ground in opposite directions, and a school bus was thrown into a nearby bus garage. As the tornado crossed Connecticut Avenue further to the east, it destroyed several large apartment buildings which resulted in 14 fatalities, along with a Dillons grocery store, and a bank. Only the concrete safety deposit box vault remained at the bank, and a wooden 2×4 beam was found speared completely through a concrete curb at one location. The tornado then approached Rangeline Road, the main commercial strip in the eastern part of Joplin, affecting additional neighborhoods along 20th Street.
The now heavily rain-wrapped tornado continued at EF5 intensity as it crossed Range Line Road. In that corridor between about 13th and 32nd Streets, the tornado continued producing catastrophic damage as it reached its widest point nearly one mile (1.6 km) across. As the tornado struck a Pizza Hut on South Range Line Road, store manager Christopher Lucas herded four employees and 15 customers into a walk-in freezer. With difficulty closing the door, he wrapped a bungee cord holding the door shut around his arm until he was sucked out and killed. The tornado completely destroyed a Walmart supercenter, a Home Depot, and numerous other businesses and restaurants in the area, many of which were flattened. Numerous metal roof trusses were torn from the Home Depot building and were found broken and mangled in nearby fields, and cars originally parked at the Home Depot parking lot were found hundreds of yards away. Asphalt was scoured from parking lots at Walmart and a nearby pizza restaurant, and large tractor-trailers were thrown up to 200 yards (180 m) away. An Academy Sports + Outdoors store along Range Line sustained major structural damage, and a chair was found impaled legs-first through an exterior stucco wall there. A nearby three-story apartment complex was also devastated, and two cell phone towers collapsed. In this area, numerous cars were thrown and piled on top of each other, 100-pound (45 kg) manhole covers were removed from roads and thrown, and a Pepsi distribution plant was completely leveled. Additional calculations with regards to the manhole covers by Partha Sarkar revealed that winds had to have exceeded 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) for the manhole covers to be removed. Twenty fatalities occurred in this area, and the damage was rated as EF5.
Extreme damage continued in the area of Duquesne Road in southeast Joplin. Homes and the industrial park near the corner of 20th and Duquesne was especially hard hit with nearly every building flattened. Several large warehouse structures were swept cleanly from their foundations, and several heavy industrial vehicles were thrown up to 400 yards (370 m) away. The last area of EF5 damage occurred in the industrial park, and a nearby Fastrip gas station and convenience store was completely destroyed – a famous first-person video of the direct hit was recorded by a man sheltering in the beer cooler here. Many homes were destroyed further to the east at EF3 to EF4 strength in a nearby subdivision, and East Middle School sustained major damage.
Weakening and dissipation
The tornado then continued on an east to east-southeast trajectory towards I-44 where it weakened; nonetheless, vehicles were blown off the highway and mangled near US 71 (exit 11) (now I-49) interchange. The damage at and around the interchange was rated EF2 to EF3. The weakening tornado continued to track into the rural areas of southeastern Jasper County and northeastern Newton County where damage was generally minor to moderate, with trees, mobile homes, outbuildings, and frame homes damaged at EF0 to EF1 strength. The tornado lifted east of Diamond at 6:12 p.m. CDT (23:12 UTC), according to aerial surveys. The total track length was 21.62 miles (34.79 km) long, and the tornado was up to 0.75–1 mile (1.21–1.61 km) across at its widest point. A total of 158 people were killed, and over 1,150 others were injured along the path. A separate EF2 tornado touched down near Wentworth from the same supercell about 25 miles (40 km) east-southeast of Joplin, beginning roughly 10 minutes before the dissipation of this tornado.