2011 Joplin tornado

Damage from the tornado

The 2011 Joplin tornado was a windy and dangerous EF5 tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri on the afternoon of May 22, 2011. It had winds of over 200 miles per hour. It killed 158 people and hurt 1,150 others. It caused $2.8 billion in damage. It is the costliest tornado to hit the United States. It was the third tornado to hit Joplin since May 1971.

2011 Joplin Tornado Media

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  A cropped satellite image shows the supercell thunderstorm that produced the 2011 Joplin tornado at 22:45 UTC, just as it was moving through the city.

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  A destroyed area in the tornado's damage path is seen on May 23.

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  St. John's Regional Medical Center sustained EF5 damage and had to be torn down due to deformation of its foundation and underpinning system.

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  Aerial view of the St. John's Regional Medical Center campus

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  The safety deposit box vault is seen after the tornado, having remained intact despite the destruction of the bank building that housed it.

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  A radar image of the supercell that produced the tornado shows both a distinctive "hook echo" (left) and an impressive velocity signature (right).

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  A United States Army Corps of Engineers map shows the tornado's damage path as it moved nearly due east through Joplin, with the most intense damage near its centerline.

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  Extreme damage from the tornado is still clear on June 14, nearly three weeks later, with debarked trees visible in front of destroyed homes.

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  Joplin, ten days after the tornado

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  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers produced this graphic to illustrate the amount of debris removed from Joplin just six weeks after the tornado.

Other websites

• Time-lapse of the May 22 tornado outbreak
• Radar loop of the Joplin tornado
• NOAA's Aerial Survey of Joplin, Missouri Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
• Slideshow of damage from the tornado Archived 2011-12-31 at the Wayback Machine