Furthermore, because of the large number of fatalities that resulted from a warned tornado event, this Service Assessment will provide additional focus on dissemination, preparedness, and warning response within the community as they relate to NWS services'-Preface. The EF5 tornado was the deadliest single tornado to occur in the United States since modern record keeping began in 1950, surpassing the tornado of 8 June 1953, which claimed 116 lives in Flint, Michigan.

Because of the rarity and historical significance of this event, a regional Service Assessment team was formed to examine warning and forecast services provided by the National Weather Service. Rated E-F5 (the highest rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale), the tornado had a near one-mile width and a. As a result, the Joplin tornado was the first single tornado in the United States to result in over 100 fatalities since the Flint, Michigan, tornado of June 8, 1953. In 2011, a twister made ground in Joplin Missouri. The tornado, rated EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with maximum winds over 200 mph, affected a significant part of a city with a population of more than 50,000 and a population density near 1,500 people per square mile. The violent tornado indiscriminately tore through thousands of buildings, including Saint Johns Regional Medical. Softball-Size Hail, Missouri Photograph from Weatherstock/Corbis Adding insult to injury, this dangerously large hail rode in on the coattails of a tornado.

The Joplin tornado, moving roughly west to east, cut a 6-mile-long path through a densely populated are and was up to a mile wide in some places. 'On May 22, 2011, one of the deadliest tornadoes in United States history struck Joplin, Missouri, directly killing 158 people and injuring over 1,000. The Joplin Tornado: A Calamity and a Boon to Resilience, 10 Years On.

Joplin missouri tornado path length