The Joplin, MO, EF-5 Tornado of May 22, 2011: A Case Study

In-depth meteorological discussion of the Joplin, MO, EF5 tornado of May 22, 2011, including what environmental/behavioral features made this storm so deadly and some well-known analogs with very similar background environments.

Thumbnail image via Julie Denesha/Getty Images.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:37 Meteorological discussion
31:27 Analogs and their background pattern
32:53 Analog: El Reno, OK (May 31, 2013)
38:20 Analog: Moore, OK (May 20, 2013)

[BuescherSupremacist]

Lived in Battlefield, MO when this happened. Great Grandmother survived a direct hit on her home, but somehow received minimal to medium damage, but three of her neighbors died, to the left of her, to the right, and directly across the street. Nobody knows how her house wasn't leveled with her inside.

[lifeintornadoalley]

I'll never forget the sounds of chasing this. Chasing and mental health aren't talked about much, but it definitely should. We're 99% of the time before EMS services arrive. God bless everyone that survived 2011

[EverydayLJnz]

You deserve far more subscribers than you have! Such detailed meteorology analysis and discussion. Thanks so much Trey!

[laneboyd]

This is an absolutely phenomenal synopsis of the Joplin tornado; thanks so much! I was just to the southwest in extreme northeastern Oklahoma and saw the storms above me (Storm B and C) merge into the cluster. It was an incredibly scary day with some unbelievable weather and a more shocking sky.

[Cardinal]

Joplin tornado has always been on my mind for some reason. How destructive it was and the historic toll it took on the city. I’ve always tried to look for a meteorological analysis on it. Thank you for this educational video.

[rekeinserah]

If the tornado had not happened, the animal shelters in surrounding cities and states would not have been full. Had they been not full, we would have had to give the kitten we rescued to the shelters. Instead, because they were full of animals from Joplin, we kept the kitten. Hes still with our family now.

[cnmnnaturalist]

Back in the early 2000s I was living down in SE Kansas and we would head to Joplin regularly to shop and dine. I can clearly remember several occasions where we would be eating or shopping, and the tornado sirens would be going off during warnings. I would ask my friends or other folks why we weren't going to shelter, and they would tell me it 'happens all the time and nothing comes of it', to 'not worry about it' or 'a tornado won't hit Joplin because of the terrain'. Even when a funnel or tornado touchdown happened near town, they would ignore it and go about their business. There seemed to be a definite 'siren fatigue' and sense of complacency (even a belief that Joplin was somehow protected by natural forces and would never get a direct hit) and it really worried me.

[questionitall]

Fantastic work here mate. I’d be fascinated to see someone of your knowledge, look into the famous “Pilger” Nebraska twin tornadoes of 2014. That was a unique event that NO tornado expert has looked fully into. Cheers, from the UK.

[michaellovely]

What I remember the most about the aftermath of the Joplin, Missouri tornado on May 22nd, 2011 is how Mike Bettes broke down on air while covering the storm for The Weather Channel. Though I admit that I smiled when reading a story of how Mike Bettes adopted an orphaned Golden Retriever and named her Joplyn. Sadly, Joplyn died earlier this year. Even though I was understandably saddened; I reminded myself that at least she was adopted by a loving family and lived in a home surrounded by love and affection.

[LoriGraceAz]

I'm learning a great deal of the impact of constructive storm mergers on tornadogenesis through this series of videos. I never focused on that before. Also, last year I visited the memorial park in Joplin and it feels absolutely haunting that an EF-5 had been there in such a populated place. Hearing the playful screams of kids that day vs the unimaginable screams of terror in 2011 keeps me aware that while we enjoy chasing tornadoes there is still an incredibly dangerous piece to it.

[seanharris]

Your analysis of this storm and others is some of if not the best I've found on Youtube, and is so well explained that I, relatively new to understanding any of these weather phenomena, can comfortably grasp all the concepts. I really appreciate that you kept going back to the factors you'd previously outlined so it was always clear where thy fit into the bigger picture. Great video, and you deserve so many more subscribers and views!

[CatCmdr]

I was in Joplin when it happened. My youngest daughter was on Rangeline at “ground zero” there, in front of Walmart, etc. She ran into a business there and survived. Her car was totaled. I Thank God she was spared. ❤

[intellectualredneck]

We was just south of Joplin on this day. The moment i saw the rain column start to form rain bands (some even almost horrizontal) we was calling in a rain wrapped tornado. The problem we faced was that many stations did not take it serious. This storm intensified faster then most other starts i have followed. Anyone looking at the rain column tho, KNEW what it really was. All of us had the exact same feeling in our gut. We knew this was going to be one of the worst situations we had seen before.

[snuffedtorch]

I live in Norman. I still feel for the people that went through Ef4/Ef5 tornadoes. This damage reminds me of 2011 Smithville and 2013 Moore. Crazy, beautiful forces of nature.

[inquisitrmikey]

2011 a year of Tornadoes. From Oklahoma dual Vortex, St Louis Airport, Carolinas, Super Outbreak April 27th, To May Outbreak Sequence of that includes Joplin and El Reno/Piedmont, and Springfield Massachusetts. Joplin Tornado is a strange case but not unheard-of. The atmospheric records are limited by time as we only begin looking at details in only a few decades. As more events occur the more we learn and have better understanding of them to have a better forecasting.

[LoganTheDevilMayCryFan]

I first remembered reading about this in a book called "I Survived: The Joplin Tornado, 2011" and it got me fascinated with this. I wanted to learn more, and soon enough, found out it is the 7th deadliest in US history, and also the costliest in US history in raw numbers (beating out the 1894 St. Louis - East St. Louis tornado, which coincidentally also happened in Missouri) and heard that this tornado is Missouri's second EF5 (the previous was in 1957, when a F5 rated tornado destroyed several Kansas City suburbs)

[sirwalterii_nd]

This tornado is infamous for good reason but the crazy thing about the Joplin tornado, as powerful as it was, it was not the most powerful tornado to form during the 2011 outbreak. One day later another EF5 tornado formed near El Reno (not the 2.6 mile wide monster of 2013) and was significantly more powerful. Its on par with the 1999 Moore-Bridge Creek tornado and had winds actually recorded that clocked in at 296 mph. Surveyors confirmed that strength because it blew over and rolled a 2 million pound oil Derrick three times. Lives were lost but the oil workers were spared because 6 months before this event a manager convinced the CEO to create portable safe rooms because they felt it was only a matter of time before they would get hit by a bad tornado. Company spent half a million dollars to reinforce a tractor trailer dressing room that was welded to anchors that were drilled deep into the earth. They have to spend several thousand dollars everything they move to a different site.

[aergisgeist]

Love these case studies, thanks for all the hard work making them!

[jdbbgotskills]

This! This is the kind of stuff I’ve been looking for. The nitty gritty weather nerd stuff haha
Thank you for a great video.

[steveholmes]

Thank you for an in-depth analysis even I could understand. You're the only one I know of to mention gravity waves. They can create a tornado, or turn a small one into a strong one like flipping a switch (weather people were awed at the speed in which the Joplin monster formed). Gravity waves been implicated in such beasts as Jarrell 1997, Birmingham 1998, Elie (Manitoba) 2007 and Parkersburg 2008.

I'm from Joplin (and living there now). My family was at Ground Zero that day. The Walmart fell on my Mom. She got out, but was rushed to the hospital a week later with a stress-related heart condition, from which she recovered. My brother, trying to rescue her from Walmart, drove into the heart of the carnage, where entire apartment complexes looked as if they'd been dropped into a Cuisinart. He saw people moving. He saw people not moving. To this day, he will not let a storm catch him by surprise again. Even if it arrives in the middle of the night, he stays up to watch the radar until the threat has passed.

I'm writing a book about the first ten years of the recovery, the long-term effects too subtle to make anyone's front page. Thanks for helping me to understand the monster that made the book necessary.