On the evening of Sunday, May 22, 2011, a violent multi-vortex tornado tore through the city of Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and injuring more than 1,150. It was the deadliest single tornado to strike the United States since the modern record-keeping era began in 1950, and one of the costliest natural disasters in American history at the time.
The tornado touched down at approximately 5:34 PM CDT just west of Joplin, on the Kansas–Missouri border. Over the next 38 minutes it carved a path 22 miles long and up to 1 mile wide, moving east-northeast at roughly 30 mph. It struck the southern half of Joplin — a city of about 50,000 — head-on during peak evening hours.
National Weather Service radar signatures suggested peak wind speeds in excess of 200 mph, placing it firmly at the top of the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Multiple sub-vortices were observed inside the main circulation, a hallmark of the strongest tornadoes.
The tornado destroyed or damaged more than 7,000 buildings, including:
The economic loss was estimated at $2.8 billion, making it the costliest single US tornado on record at that time.
The National Weather Service in Springfield issued a tornado warning at 5:17 PM — 17 minutes before touchdown, and about 24 minutes before the tornado entered the city. Despite this lead time, casualties were extraordinarily high due to the sheer intensity, the dense population in the path, and the fact that many residents reported "warning fatigue" from earlier sirens that day.
President Obama declared a federal disaster and visited the city days later. Rebuilding took years; the new Mercy Hospital replacing St. John's was built with reinforced concrete safe rooms. The Joplin tornado led to significant changes in how the NWS communicates warnings — including impact-based wording ("catastrophic damage expected") to convey urgency.
By fatalities, Joplin ranks 7th among all US tornadoes and is the deadliest since the Flint–Beecher tornado of 1953. By damage, it was surpassed only later by the 2013 Moore tornado and the 2011 Tuscaloosa–Birmingham tornado. Its combination of EF5 intensity, urban path, and evening timing made it uniquely lethal.
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