2011 Joplin tornado

The 2011 Joplin tornado was a catastrophic EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011. It was part of a larger late-May tornado outbreak and reached a maximum width of nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) during its path through the southern part of the city. It rapidly intensified and tracked eastward across the city, and then continued eastward across Interstate 44 into rural portions of Jasper County and Newton County. It was the third tornado to strike Joplin since May 1971.

Overall, the tornado killed 158 people (with an additional four indirect deaths), injured some 1,150 others, and caused damages amounting to a total of $2.8 billion. It was the deadliest tornado to strike the United States since the 1947 Glazier-Higgins-Woodward tornadoes, and the seventh-deadliest overall. It also ranks as the costliest single tornado in U.S. history.

In a preliminary estimate, the insurance payout was expected to be $2.2 billion; the highest insurance payout in Missouri history, higher than the previous record of $2 billion in the April 10, 2001 hail storm, which is considered the costliest hail storm in history as it swept along the I-70 corridor from Kansas to Illinois. Estimates earlier stated Joplin damage could be $3 billion. By July 15, 2011, there had been 16,656 insurance claims.