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.
Jon Davies journal article on the Joplin tornado: ejssm.org/archives/wp-content...
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.

[@Sarahsadie2021]

That’s crazy. So mind blowing

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Wow, that's incredible. Very glad your great-grandmother was able to come out of that unscathed.

[@BuescherSupremacist]

@@ConvectiveChronicles Appreciate It.

[@michaellovely6601]

That is amazing your great grandma survived. With regards to the tornado that hit Washington, Illinois on November 17th, 2013 a city councilman by the name of Tyler Gee was worried about his great grandma because she was 93 and living alone and the tornado was headed straight for the neighborhood she lived in. Blessedly she survived.

[@matthewherbert8875]

She was fortunate and her lesser damage level was likely due to the multiple vortex structure going on inside of the main rotation. Glad she made it.

[@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

[@JaredFarrer]

This is very true I’ve had parts of house raining down on me. Mapleton Iowa

[@patricklaurojr7427]

Very very true and I'm a veteran and never understood other cases of ptsd cuz thought mine was diff but I learned real quick you def don't have be in military to get ptsd. 💪💪💪❤️

[@LJ-fo6nk]

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

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it!

[@jawmedia7575]

He keeps this up and subs will arrive. This channel is excellent

[@LJ-fo6nk]

@@jawmedia7575 Looks to be that way! And hes consistent too!

[@intellectualredneck1813]

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.

[@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.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Dang, that probably was a contributing factor to the significant death toll from the Joplin tornado. Thankfully the NWS has improved their false alarm ratio, but it’s still a big hurdle to overcome in the warning process.

[@cnmnnaturalist]

@@ConvectiveChronicles From the assessments made by the NWS and other agencies, it was a definite factor. Folks were trying to see the tornado or hear about confirmed damage/sighted tornado before deciding what to do, and it was so large and rain-wrapped, most didn't recognize it as a tornado unless they knew what they were looking for. The lead time was about 20 minutes from the initial warning, so folks would have plenty of time to get to shelter (even if they had to leave their homes or other buildings), but obviously not everyone is going to act from the first siren sounding. The timing was bad, though it could have been worse if folks were still at graduations.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@cnmnnaturalist Yep, I 100% agree

[@michaellovely6601]

@@cnmnnaturalist Fortunately the graduation ceremony for Joplin High School was held to the north of the tornado's path at Missouri Southern State University. I shudder to think about how many students, faculty members, parents and administrators would have been killed or seriously injured if the ceremony was held at Joplin High School.

[@13_cmi]

People are like that here. They say the hills stop tornadoes or make them form after they pass over. Then when tornadoes actually happen they freak out. A lot of storm systems like to form east of us but they can and do start way west and come all the way here with their winds over the highway speed limit. Mountains don’t stop anything. Especially all the mountains east of the Rockies. All the Appalachian and I think they’re called the Boston mountains are super tiny so storms go over them.

[@laneboyd6410]

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.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you very much!

[@901Cardinal]

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.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for watching!

[@michaellovely6601]

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.

[@AngelWhisper_7]

Mike Bettes, as he was live on air, and reporting, was looking around and that's when he saw a dead body all torn up. That's when when he broke down after seeing that as he was reporting live. I think that would make anyone choke up or cry if they were in the same position as Mike.

[@michaellovely6601]

@@AngelWhisper_7 Absolutely. What do you think of the story of Mike Bettes adopting that orphaned Golden Retriever and naming her Joplyn?

[@questionitall3053]

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.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! The Pilger event is high on my list of case studies to do, so hopefully that will be released relatively soon.

[@huckstirred7112]

@@ConvectiveChronicles please do so .If pilger hit a metro the destruction would have been beyond comprehension

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@huckstirred7112 My Pilger case study is at the following link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpDLe2qkp5qorqc

[@huckstirred7112]

@@ConvectiveChronicles thank you and I just subscribed

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@huckstirred7112 Thank you!

[@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.

[@michaellovely6601]

Someone on Quora asked why the Joplin, Missouri tornado on May 22nd, 2011 was deadlier than the Moore, Oklahoma tornado on May 20th, 2013 even though both were rated as EF5 tornadoes by the National Weather Service. I can try to sum it up as simple as possible with the following reasons: 1.) Prior to May 22nd, 2011 Joplin, Missouri hadn't been hit by a meteorologically significant tornado since May 5th, 1971; so the residents of Joplin assumed that the geographical landscape of southwestern Missouri functioned as a natural shield from tornadoes. 2.) The tornado formed too quickly for the National Weather Service office in Springfield, Missouri to issue a Tornado Emergency for Joplin even though there was a Tornado Warning for Jasper County. 3.) The tornado formed right outside of Joplin and cut right through the city before dissipating upon leaving Joplin. 4.) Many residents of Joplin ignored the tornado warnings when they were issued. 5.) When the tornado sirens in Joplin were first sounded at 5:17 PM Central Time it gave the residents of Joplin seventeen minutes to take shelter. By the time the tornado sirens began wailing a second time at 5:34 PM it was too late to do anything because the tornado was already on the ground and moving through the city. 6.) By far the biggest contributing factor is that the Joplin tornado was hidden in very heavy rain and difficult to see. By comparison; the residents of Moore, Oklahoma are extremely weather-wise and fully aware of how bad tornadoes can get because their city is practically synonymous with violent and destructive tornadoes. When the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma issued a Tornado Watch for much of central Oklahoma at 1:10 PM Central Time on May 20th, 2013 the three major TV stations in Oklahoma City promptly suspended regular programming and went into wall-to-wall coverage of the weather. Residents began taking it seriously given the time of day and the fact that schools were slated to start dismissing students; so they began heeding the advice from the three trusted meteorologists in Oklahoma City: Mike Morgan at Oklahoma City's NBC affiliate KFOR Channel 4, Damon Lane at the city's ABC affiliate KOCO Channel 5 and the legend known as Gary England at the city's CBS affiliate KWTV Channel 9.

[@seanharris5436]

Your analysis of this storm and others is some of if not the best I've found on KZbin, 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!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you so much for the kind words!

[@inquisitrmikey7920]

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.

[@Yeaggghurte]

From 1999 to 2014 give or take is the most active time period for tornados in my opinion ridiculous the amount of once in a lifetime events happened in those 15 years give or take

[@donniewinter5331]

April 15,16,27 numbers go on

[@wutzittoya]

Even Ny got in on some Tornado action with an EF-3 i believe

[@Yeaggghurte]

@@wutzittoya 1998 I think?

[@masonhoover165]

vilonia arkansas was hit in 2011 as well as 2014

[@snuffedtorch3683]

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.

[@michaellovely6601]

Many residents of Moore, Oklahoma regard the tornado that hit their city on May 20th, 2013 as a deadly second act to the deadlier and more infamous tornado on May 3rd, 1999. In fact; residents of Moore who lived through the 1999 tornado were saying that they "couldn't believe it happened again" following the 2013 tornado. I couldn't keep myself from crying when I received the news that seven innocent children lost their lives at Plaza Towers Elementary School. It was the second time in my life that I have cried over the loss of young children; the first time was when I heard that twenty children were murdered by a deranged madman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut just a few months earlier. There's an episode of a show on The Weather Channel called "Tornado Alley" that profiled the Moore tornado in its group of episodes with the secondary title of "Real Time Tornado." This is also the pilot episode of the show and a few of the local media figures were interviewed for the episode. Namely; these were Jon Welsh, Lance West, Damon Lane, Justin Cox and Chance Coldiron. Jon Welsh is the helicopter pilot for Oklahoma City's NBC affiliate KFOR Channel 4 with Lance West as a field reporter for the same station. Damon Lane is the chief meteorologist for Oklahoma City's ABC affiliate KOCO Channel 5 with Chance and Justin as field meteorologists. Damon talked about how he was juggling two roles on May 20th: chief meteorologist and husband. He was also text messaging his wife and urging her to get herself and their dogs into the storm shelter. Two other stories that caught my attention were those of Sam Peña and DeAnna Scofield. Sam displayed nearly superhuman abilities by using all of his psychical strength to hold up a cinder block wall to keep his son Benji as well as Benji's friends and classmates safe as they took shelter from the storm in a boys bathroom at Briarwood Elementary School. DeAnna is a stay-at-home wife and mother of two boys. On May 20th; DeAnna was at home alone due to her husband being at work in Oklahoma City and her sons being at school. She was initially shooting video footage of the tornado on her phone from her kitchen window when she had a moment of "Oh shit!" when she saw debris and realized that the tornado had just crossed over Interstate 44; which is only ten minutes away from her home on Southwest 10th Street and Penn Lane, so at that point DeAnna hurried into a storm shelter in her backyard. DeAnna was extremely frightened by the tornado and worried about her sons. When the tornado finally dissipated at 3:35 PM Central Time; DeAnna tentatively crawled out of her storm shelter and begged for the storm to be over. Blessedly for her; DeAnna didn't lose her home and both of her sons were okay. I have a tremendous amount of respect for a woman named Robin Dziedzic. Robin works as a teacher at Briarwood Elementary School and she was sheltering in a girls bathroom with several students. When the tornado hit the school; Robin screamed bloody murder. Though she eventually pulled herself together and reassured the students the tornado was almost over. Once the tornado had passed over the school; Robin assured the students they were okay due to being in a brick building despite the roof having been damaged. Though nothing could have prepared Robin for what she saw and heard the moment she opened the bathroom door and poked her head into the hallway: she saw the school had been severely damaged and children were screaming and crying. After pulling herself together a second time; Robin and her fellow Briarwood teachers sprang into action and began trying to get the students to safety. The day after the tornado; Robin and Sam returned to the school for different reasons: Sam returned to the school to show in a video how he was able to keep everyone safe. Robin returned to the school as a means of accepting what she had experienced. Robin explained that as a teacher her classroom is a second home for her and her students and she felt a sense of tremendous loss seeing her classroom destroyed. However she reconciled her feeling of loss by reminding herself that she didn't lose her actual home, her children were safe, her students were safe and she didn't lose her life.

[@practicalphotography1235]

I was visiting friends in.Moore on May 20, 2013. We survived. Their home did not.

[@Rhi_wx]

Another great meteorological breakdown Trey, really informative, as always! Looking forward to the next one.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you, Rhi!

[@aergisgeist6346]

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

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you!!

[@jdbb3gotskills]

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.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@deransadventures]

Probably my favorite storm to study. Excited to watch this one. Thank you!

[@richardcheese4722]

You should look into a local Joplin TV station meteorologist Doug Heady. He nailed this system down a week prior to. He predictrd the time it would start and was about 15 min off. As far as NOAH goes especially NOAH Springfield Mo. They're warning was weak and contradicted Doug Headys warning. Not once did NOAH springfield broadcast a tornado for Joplin. The entire time the tornado was on the ground they broadcasted. " no tornadic activity is expected from this system". Noah springfield began broadcasting tornado warnings for counties east of joplin literally the very minute the tornado quit at the east side of Joplin. I watched it all from start to finnish from one of the highest elevations near Joplin

[@Sj430]

Of all the tornadoes I have looked into the Joplin tornado is most study tornado I look into.

[@richardcheese4722]

@@Sj430 I've spent a lifetime in tornado alley. Traveled the globe working outdoors. I've never seen a storm form up like this monster.

[@myria9644]

ive always wanted to see a case study on this tornado. thank you!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for watching!

[@tornadostories]

This is a superb analysis. Thanks for such high level work.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you!

[@GregMc_wx]

Excellent breakdown! I remember there being an ofb on this day. I don't recall whether or not the residual boundary from overnight convection was a factor, but the initial cluster of storms in southeast Kansas produced an ofb that began surging south. The Joplin cell formed just ahead of it. I had stopped for gas in Columbus, KS and saw the Joplin storm explode to my south and quickly develop a wall cloud. My chase partner and I briefly discussed our strategy and decided we didn't want to chase it into Joplin, so we dropped south into Oklahoma and caught the next supercell coming off the dryline which also produced significant tornadoes. Not sure if the ofb from the southeast Kansas storms enhanced the Joplin storm or the storm to the south that produced an eF3 that hit Southwest City, MO. I do remember the watching the leading edge of the ofb surge south into far northeast Oklahoma as I drove south. We saw the next storm coming off the dryline and it quickly became tornadic as well. I will never forget how quickly the day went from a boring afternoon watching an outflow dominant cluster, to high end tornadic supercells.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you, Greg! It is very possible that the outflow from the ongoing cluster of storms themselves played a role in the intensification of these storms. I believe Jon Davies also mentioned a possible differential heating boundary produced by anvil shading that may have enhanced the Joplin storm as it neared it. No doubt there were several mesoscale features at play here, and they may have helped the switch flip from a clustery mess to a prolific tornado outbreak.

[@chadsimonton5501]

So crazy. I remember I drove thru Joplin 3 days before this Twister, then again 4 days after the twister smashed through. So crazy....

[@stevecowder4774]

Wow, the weather breakdown of how this particular tornado developed is very intricate and astonishing. I never knew about the combination of 3 storm systems merging together, right as the front had crossed over the Kansas / Missouri border. No wonder that tornado was so massively powerful, then causing even more rain and making it very hard to see as it made its way over Joplin. It certainly does explain the unfortunate amount of devastation it would leave behind. I’d been loosely following tornado activity for years now but I don’t recall ever seeing anything like this. What a freakish event.

[@evanmurray901]

Love your work man. I can fully understand what happened to hometown back then. Thank you Trey

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you; I really appreciate it!

[@Elysian777]

Unfortunately the other half of the story was the newscasters at the Joplin NBC affiliate kept saying 'it's only funnel clouds' and having to wait for NOAA to contact them because apparently they didn't know how to read radar or velocity signatures. They were doing the standard tornado warnings but not acting like it was anything to really worrry about. There was even a clear hook echo on the cheesy, ultrasmoothed radar they were showing on screen but somehow they didn't understand the danger and went to commercial for several minutes. They didn't really get alarmed and forceful about warnings until it was a mile wide and bearing down on the station and they saw it on a tower cam. The male newscaster was so unfamiliar with radar that he literally went to look outside the door. The lady newscaster told another employee that she 'didn't know if it was heading for the station.' Obviously completely lacking in weather training. Everyone has been wondering why that footage was never played on KZbin like other stations do after a major weather event. Some guy finally posted the video to youtube a couple weeks ago. The FOX affiliate never released their video either. But after seeing NBC's I have a better idea as to why so many Joplinites were so unprepared. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJLKq4F-qq5ogKs Meanwhile Basehunters chase team and others had converged on the radar signature before it even hit the ground and captured tornadogenesis.

[@Michael-gi5th]

Great video man, many things I don't understand even after all the years but brilliant analysis

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you!

[@peachxtaehyung]

Great video! I was always wondering what made it so strong! Thank you!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for watching!

[@StormRaid417]

I remember watching the radar as a kid looking for every possible tornadic storm and this one was intense to watch.

[@steveholmes5446]

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.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for watching! Wow, I’m glad your mom made it out ok. Can’t imagine what that post-tornado scene must’ve looked like in person. Really looking forward to your book on this incredible event.

[@Elysian777]

Got a triple point? Got gravity waves? Got a high CAPE? You are probably in for a bad day.

[@_Tripz_]

These case studies are great! I appreciate the detail you go into when you make these! Also, what’s the best website for using when you look at past radar data? I have been trying to find good radar as well as satellite imagery from the past as well. It’s interesting to look at. Thanks!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for the kind words! UCAR has a great data archive site on which you can plug in any date and get radar and satellite imagery going back several years (although the farther back you go, the more gaps there are in the data.) The website is www2.mmm.ucar.edu/imagearchive/. Also, I use the NOAA Weather and Climate Toolkit, which is a free program that displays radar data going back a long time; you can download it here: www.ncdc.noaa.gov/wct/

[@26michaeluk]

Bro the inflow on this is the strongest I've ever felt. Made me bail it scared me so much. You were born for this brother.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

I believe it…that storm was a beast.

[@26michaeluk]

@@ConvectiveChronicles only inflow that scared me.

[@sirwalterii_2nd]

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.

[@michaellovely6601]

Uh, the 2011 tornado that hit El Reno, Oklahoma occurred on May 24, 2011; just two days after the tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Of course you're right about how not many people outside of Oklahoma know about the May 24, 2011 tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma because of the Joplin, Missouri tornado just two days earlier. Due to the destruction in Joplin; the eyes of the world turned to Joplin and focused on the amount of destruction as well as rescue efforts and later on the cleanup efforts.

[@sirwalterii_2nd]

@Michael Lovely the outbreak was a multiple day event. That's why it is included with the Joplin tornado. Same weather event.

[@strat5520]

sir, you became my go to shortly after I found you. keep at it. you will be huge soon

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you so much!

[@WhoFlungPoo2024]

I had some initial concern over diving into your analysis only because, up until now, I'd not heard of your channel and the ether is awash with so-called weather "experts." Your initial comments, citing Jon Davies, caused me to perk up as other than an Edwards/Thompson reference, no one tells better meteorological stories than Jon. But to get to my point: Your analysis AND presentation is superb! The JLN 5/22/11 event was a historic tornado and the work you've done explaining it is noteworthy and adds to a better understanding of what the atmospheric setup was. I also appreciate a forecaster saying, in effect, "We're not 100% certain if 'X' may have happened." Too many of the "experts" lack this humility. I'm looking forward to spending more time watching and listening to your superb analyses. Kudos and thanks for your hard work!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Wow, thank you so much for the kind words, Joel! I really appreciate you taking the time to watch the video, and I’m really happy to hear you enjoyed it. I can agree with you about Jon Davies; one of favorite memories during my early forays into meteorology was attending his forecasting class at ChaserCon…he’s an incredible teacher and storyteller, as you said.

[@jonathanbecker8935]

Jeff Patrowski and his wife got some incredible footage of that rain wrapped beast. Incredible because of how quickly it grew, and because it was rain wrapped. The three major videos which captured the actual tornado are all epic in their own rights among all these storm chaser vids. This includes the guys who caught the very beginning, and the tour group in the small convoy of vans who got various video recordings as they were caught in traffic, bailing from the literal kill zone, with a giant wall of death coming towards them. It looks as though one red light too long or too many could have resulted in the worst possible outcome for the whole tour group! Seeing how fast that wall of clouds was approaching their position, visibly killing the power to businesses as transformers were being blown almost exactly in sink with their progress down Rangeline Rd. Each of the three groups could've also found themselves suddenly becoming first responders to the worst mass casualty incident in Missouri history. We could see Jeff and his wife experiencing some of that. When he held that dog who appeared to come from the overturned car, I'm really curious about what happened to the driver and any passengers. The whole experience must've been pretty traumatic for everyone in all three groups, esp since they were uniquely qualified, and well aware of the extreme danger they were suddenly all in. Twenty Minutes In May, a sort of public debrief offered by the incident commander of the Joplin mass casualty incident response, seemed like a really high def explanation of how the people of Joplin were impacted that day. His descriptions of the massive recovery and rebuilding process were pretty stunning as well. Looking at the extent of the damage, it's hard to believe more people weren't hurt. It's hard to even conceive of experiencing and surviving such a destructive force and sticking around to see so many miles of homes and businesses that had been turned into piles of rubble raised from the ashes.

[@michaellovely6601]

I remember seeing Jeff freaking out while his wife was driving. Jeff best summed up the Joplin, Missouri tornado as a massive tornado that was at least a mile wide and leveling the south side of Joplin.

[@Duck_87]

Thank you for doing these case studies

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

My pleasure, thank you for watching!

[@barackobreezy]

great video man. Been obsessed with weather ever since I was young but I've always wanted a more in-depth look into all of the factors that produce these kind of supercells. It's a lot to take in, and this is my first video of yours, so maybe there's a different video that explains how to read sounding results and that sort of stuff. Great channel though, I appreciate it

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much! I actually have a whole video series detailing how to analyze soundings here: kzbin.info/aero/PLnjboQ2ku8GDI9DGcqR8d9sr0sZKhH-qX

[@ghewins]

Dispassionate study of a truly tragic event. This past July, shortly before the flash flood, I came across a copy of the book published by the Kansas City Star newspaper to commemorate the Joplin tornado. Although it was very well done, I had to stop reading when I got to the chapter that dealt with what happened at the hospital. It started out bad enough with accounts of patients and visitors on the floors trying to keep from being blown out of the building, but that was mild compared to the situation in the ER. Gravely injured adults and children began streaming into a facility that was not only wrecked, but, because of the loss of power and the destruction of the generators, the automatically locking medicine cabinets could not be opened. The staff was reduced to using axes to try to gain access to desperately needed supplies. At the time I came across this account of the storm, I was in contact with a group of volunteers affiliated with a religious organization. Their pollyannish view of the world bothered me greatly, so I left the book in a location where it could be easily seen. I don’t know how many of them actually looked at it, and I don’t know if it had any effect. That group of volunteers soon left, to be replaced within a couple of weeks by volunteers with Team Rubicon, there to help with flood recovery. The Joplin book disappeared while they were there, but I didn’t mind, because I figured that some of them had also helped in Joplin.

[@perpetualconcepts6927]

You do a fantastic presentation. Cheers, and thank you

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you!

[@anthonywhavers8232]

Love your videos! 2011 tornado season was just built different. Even after this one it wasn't finished dropping EF5s for the year. The crazy violent El Reno EF5 was 2 days later but don't really hear about that one as much cause of Joplin for obvious reasons. Maybe do a case study on that one next??

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! El Reno 2011 is on my list!

[@Sj430]

The El Reno tornado in 2011 I find underrated because it happened 2 days after the Joplin tornado.

[@andrewmarino5441]

Yeah I agree it was probably one of the most intense tornadoes as well. It doesn't get any publicity because of the famous 2011 super outbreak and Joplin tornadoe. Also 2 years later the 2013 El Reno tornado hit near the same spot and was known for being the widest. Everyone forgot about the 2011 El Reno tornado.

[@matthewherbert8875]

That sucker was huge and ridiculously violent. An almost 2 million pound oil rig was ripped out of the ground and rolled 4 times.

[@bsharp1533]

Don’t forget about the April outbreak. That year probably received the most F5 tornadoes.

[@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)

[@13_cmi]

I remember reading that a long long time ago and never stopped to think that Joplin was that little city up in the corner of Missouri.

[@sharkinstx]

I went on a family trip to Illinois with my wife and kids around July 4, 2013, and coming back (we were on I-44) we stopped in Joplin to get fast food at a couple of places on Main Street (SH 43). It was so eerie, because all the buildings were new, built after the tornado.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

On my first chase trip to the plains in 2015, we passed through Joplin as well, and it was clear as day where the damage path was. Was able to walk around the brand new park near the old hospital, and it was pretty surreal knowing what had happened just a few years earlier.

[@ronaldfischer1195]

At 12:20 when you say "VIH, I'm not sure what that is", it is assumably the code for the station there that is reporting weather. That is a map of different airports and their weather reporting info for that day and time. VIH would be the Rolla National Airport in Rolla/Vichy, Missouri with the airport ICAO being KVIH. Great video!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you…I know what the map is trying to convey, I just didn’t know what town VIH was representing.

[@ronaldfischer1195]

@@ConvectiveChronicles Awesome! Great video, thanks for the info.

[@beanie168]

This is a great explanation. Detailed but explained so everyone can understand. Liked and Subscribed

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much!

[@beanie168]

@@ConvectiveChronicles You're welcome

[@thatguy2224]

I would be interesting in hearing more about the previous day. I chased the storm on May 21, 2011 that produced the Reading EF-3. That storm looked like total junk until it got to Emporia and hit slightly better moisture and a little better shear. Its still some of the best storm structure I have ever seen. I sat up on a hill by myself and watched it strike Reading, then did SAR till early in the morning. I dare to call an EF-3 a mesoscale accident, but it definitely wasn't predicted until it was happening. While headed into Reading after the tornado you could still see the tornado on the ground with the striated Mesocyclone above it. It was something I will never forget it.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Interesting; I’ve seen quite a bit about the tornadic supercell near Ada, OK on 5-21-11 but not so much about the Reading storm. I do know there was a broad 5% out stretching from eastern KS down through eastern OK, but it was expected to be the “day before the day” with 5-22 forecast to be much more potent. I’ll have to do a little bit more research on 5-21.

[@allen123636]

This was a fantastic video; thank you. Could you do a case study on the 2011 St.Louis EF4 Tornado?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! I’ll add it to the list!

[@corasutton8028]

I live in Springfield, Missouri, when they were doing cleanup, they had to remove several feet of dirt from one of the soccer field by the high school, because there was glass embedded over 6 feet down in the ground.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Dang, that’s crazy.

[@AlaskaB83]

Watching the way the supercells merge on radar (~24:46), leading to constructive interference and consolidation of vorticity, looks interestingly similar to the "parade of vortices" tornadogenesis in the supercomputer model Leigh Orf created but basically on the next scale larger.... I would be interested to see a case study in this style of the August 10, 2020 Midwest Derecho. Though it only produced a few small, weak tornadoes, it was a major severe weather event and a breakdown like this could really help us understand how to spot different setups and Skew-T's etc, that would lead to more of a QLCS event instead of a tornado event. Also, it would be interesting to see why that derecho was so exceptionally powerful and damaging compared to other, more "normal" similar storms. I really appreciate what you're doing here. Access to this level of analysis is amazing.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! I’ve had a few others ask about a 2020 derecho case study, as well; it’s definitely high up on my list. It’s a really interesting setup from a meteorological perspective.

[@jenniferkubik478]

That tornado was wicked! Watching the videos still makes me shudder. It moved fast and hard and had no mercy!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Definitely; it certainly was a beast!

[@lisacassar9486]

May 3 1999, I was in Del City when that monster of a tornado hit. It barely missed me, GOD bless anyone who have been in one. Use to always go to Joplin, sure was a sad day when they got hit. Bless those who did not make it🙏❤

[@SvrWxArchive1807]

VIH is Vichy, MO ;). Great video as always! Glad to see the home state representation, unfortunate it was so devastating. My theory on the gravity wave was it didn't come from the convection in NE KS/NW MO but further west (western NE, NE CO, WY etc.) and just moved eastward overnight through KS/NE. Hard to tell on vis but if you look at IR there might be a hint of something there? Also very curious how to pull RUC/RAP soundings from SharpPy that far back? I can't seem to get it to work, is it a code thing or a separate program?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much! Ah, yes, Vichy...I will remember that for next time! I do agree that the gravity wave may have come from another source, but I'm not sure it was anything in W NE/NE CO/WY, as I don't see much out there. But I really can't put my finger on any other possible sources, so I really have no idea. Also, the UCAR site where I get my archived satellite data has a gap between 00z and 13z, maybe there was something in there that got left out due to the missing data. Very perplexing... As for SharpPy, I use the downloaded SharpPy program from github (github.com/sharppy/SHARPpy/releases/). Once you download that (either Mac or Windows version depending on your machine), the RAP and RUC options will be in the dropdown menu on the left side of the widget.

[@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. ❤

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Dang, very glad she made it out ok.

[@CatCmdr]

@@ConvectiveChronicles thanks, the building was rubble, but they all got out🙏

[@dmillman8589]

With being in tornado season currently and living in joplin MO this case study really shows how things just randomly happened. news and radio weather alerts calling for tornados a decent distance away and suddenly the sky turned eerie green and a tornado touched down at high intensity. with additional storms traveling north east while it traveled south east fed the initial cyclone becoming what some people in the area call "the finger of god" wasn't even that late in the day but it looked pitch black. another deeper study i want to see is why did the taco bell on main street stay the only fully standing building in some of the worst destructive area, the building just didn't get destroyed, it still exist today as a taco bell with being remodeled afterwards. everything around it was flattened. could potentially save lives in the future if homes have the same structural integrity to stay standing in an EF-5.

[@Elysian777]

Overview images of Joplin I noticed one building standing and untouched, besides some surface damage, scuffs, scrapes, etc. It was a cement dome home. I saw the same thing near a beach after a big hurricane. The only building not destroyed was a dome home.

[@GoldGamer-pl8yt]

Those buildings still standing were literally acts of god

[@Elysian777]

@@GoldGamer-pl8yt Then God hates homes that aren't dome homes?

[@snmm1029]

Thank you for the analysis of this storm. I was Northeast of the tornado in Webb City. The sounds from the clouds that afternoon haunt me. Constant rumble, thunder like, but no breaks and no lightning. They also alerted me to prepare for what 'could' happen tho fortunately we were located well outside the tornado path. Have you or any other meteorologist ever heard reports of something similar north of these types of storms/events? It's a question I have had since this day. I have yet to find anyone local who heard what the 2 of us heard that afternoon just prior to the tornado event.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for watching! There has been quite a bit of documentation of significant tornadoes producing a roar, and large hail can produce a "roar" as well. I'm not sure how far you were from the tornado itself, but either of those could be it.

[@JOMO_EDC]

@snmm1029 I was taking a nap and the constant rumble woke me up. You are the first person I’ve heard say anything about it besides myself. I lived on the north side of Joplin at that time.

[@snmm1029]

@ConvectiveChronicles about 5.5 miles north of the tornado path. The sound was heard a good 20-30 minutes prior to the tornado touching down in Joplin. I channel surfed for quite a bit to see what local stations were saying and not a single one had cut into their scheduled broadcast until just after it touched down on the westside.

[@maryjohansson3627]

Interesting presentation. Thanks !

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for watching!

[@Sj430]

With the tornado being rain wrapped the people in Joplin probably thought it was just a storm coming not knowing a tornado was coming instead.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Yeah, the low visibility of the tornado surely played a factor.

[@robwhite3671]

Actually there were tornado sirens that had gone off just a few minutes earlier because of rotation in the Northeast part of town. So with that warning alot of people were already on alert when the tornado hit the Southwest part of town.

[@johnned4848]

Great episode! Excellent meteorological summary. And a nice preview of your upcoming case studies. Here's a question for the El Reno study: what was the physical size of the supercell, its dimensions? Should it be measured in square feet? Square miies? One account I read said the El Reno anvil was visible in Wichita KS, nearly 200 miles away. Another account says the anvil reached a height of 60k feet which is astonishing, if true. In any case it seems like it was an extremely large system to produce such a giant tornado. I've only seen one overhead photo of it from an airliner. But it was impressive to say the least. Thanks again, great job!!!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much! I do not know the exact dimensions of the supercell (square miles or kilometers would probably be the go-to units), but I do know that it was massive. Its size was likely bolstered by the storm mergers that took place, as well. I definitely believe it hit or exceeded 60k feet in height and could be seen 200 mi away given the extreme instability in place, and I’m sure the Joplin storm was the same way. Thanks again!

[@iiDOCKERY]

Hey man amazing stuff I love your videos! How long did it take you to learn this much stuff? Where did you study at?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! I’ve been studying severe weather ever since I was little, but I got my Bachelor’s at Arizona State and my Master’s at the University of Oklahoma.

[@FlyBoyBrad_]

Most of the locations as you probably know are directly tied to an airport because the NWS/AWC have easy access to super high-quality reporting equipment at select airport locations all around the country. I being a local to the East Central section of MO am familiar with VIH otherwise known as Vichy/Rolla, MO National Airport so that's why there is a reporting location seemingly in the middle of nowhere in Missouri.

[@BrylcreemBill]

Is there any way to tell if cell mergers will be constructive or destructive other than watching the radar? Do you think that as meteorology advances, that parameter will become predictable?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

That’s a great question; unfortunately, we can’t really tell by just looking at the radar if a storm merger will be constructive or destructive. I have noticed some trends in that regard, however; it seems that when the secondary shower/storm mergers with the forward flank region of an ongoing supercell, tornado production ramps up. But, this is just my observation and is not supported by any research yet. Hopefully we will be able to predict the outcome of storm mergers better in the future, as that would help immensely in the short-term forecast and warning processes. I think it is possible with more computer simulation work.

[@jaredpatterson1701]

Thanks again for the informative video! This may be a silly question but I hear meteorologists talk about upper highs and lows and also surface lows but I never hear them say a surface high, so is that not a real thing? Also I'd like to request the 2011 el reno tornado as a study because it was an especially mighty storm please

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for watching! Surface highs are definitely a thing! They are the opposite of surface lows; they are areas of clockwise spin at the surface that are associated with sinking air and, in turn, fair weather. Often in the winter you'll see them associated with strong advances of cold arctic air from the north. El Reno 2011 is on my list!

[@krzy1867]

Wasn’t the original Bennington tornado also similar to this as well, these cases seem to happen more than we think in the plains and are always super hard to predict, even Morton TX sort of seemed to have some similarities to these cases

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

The original Bennington was a bit different, but it was the result of a subtle perturbation aloft and a frontal zone stretching from a lee cyclone in SW KS to the Great Lakes. The Morton case definitely had some similarities in terms of storm mergers, as that storm no doubt ramped up its tornado potential after undergoing mergers, like the Joplin storm did.

[@nickzortman9536]

Could the enhancement from merger storms C and eventually D and their outflow help to envigorate the RFD flank on the backside of the meso? Constructive mergers help to enhance the wind flow on the backside of the meso circulation often. In the videos of the Joplin tornado, it didn't start off being a huge funnel until it got some help with storms on it's backside. When that occurred, the tornado really increased in size and winds.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

It's a possibility

[@marshallsweatherhiking1820]

Something I notice in these setups is the storms become tornadic after there's been ongoing clustered convection to the north. Just prior to tornado genesis, the the tornadic mesocyclone takes a sharp jog to the south relative to the average motion of surrounding storms. It seems to me that what happens is when there is a strong N-S gradient in the boundary layer buoyancy and instability, only the storm that is able latch onto the instability gradient by turning to the right can become tornadic. Cells that aren't able to build to the right drift north into the zone of heavy rainfall and dissipate. The dominant tornadic mesocyclone overcomes less than optimal deep layer ventilating shear by turning to the right moving towards the higher instability. The N-S buoyancy/instability gradient also increases the potential helicity of storm-relative inflow entering from the east.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

That's an interesting hypothesis, you may be on to something.

[@hgbugalou]

Based on the isolation of this storm and the path of the tornado, I think the GW interaction is almost certainly involved with enhancement of vorticity directly or by helping to stack up the stream wise vorticity in the mesocyclone itself. This was somewhat of a surprise strength wise so there has to be an x factor and I think that old boundry is it in one way or another. I also wonder if the main cell ingested a left split cell before it fell apart and it greatly enhanced the RFD in the tornados cell just before tornadogenesis.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

I think those are all great points, and I think it was a collection of these things that contributed to its overwhelming intensity. Thank you for watching!

[@MP-et1eu]

I know this video is old. However, I hope you can answer my question. Does the low outflow winds affect anything besides precipitation? Could that be part of the reason the storm and tornado was moving so slowly?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

I’m not sure what you mean by “low outflow winds”?

[@MP-et1eu]

@@ConvectiveChronicles you were saying the hodograph was showing low outflow wind speeds, which leads to high precipitation. Does that also have an effect on the movement speed of the tornado?

[@jakobh6257]

Great video 🌪🌪

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you!

[@willwipf3043]

🤯 good video man 👍

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you!

[@justinhaase8825]

I’m from Joplin but was working as a news photog in Springfield at the time. I’ve covered a lot of weather so I knew a hook that big was bad. Went straight there…was at the hospital less than two hours later. It was surreal how much it looked like a WW1 bombfield. Went back there for many many stories. I honestly think I got a level of PTSD from that event. I can’t really watch footage from that day. The town is back to normal now and despite the losses I think it helped the town grow in the long term. If you ever get a chance to visit, you should. I remember them discussing at the time that the beam at JLN is about 6k up, so there is prob a lot of data below that level that would be interesting to see…can’t do that of course… Knowing the area, it is very interesting how quickly it went from nothing to a 5 distance wise. I noticed that they had a KJLN balloon…and the balloons are to my knowledge always sent at the KSGF office. Do they have special location balloon launch locations? I.E. the Joplin Air Traffic Controllers have a box of balloons for special scenarios to feed data more locally?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Wow, can’t imagine what it must’ve been like seeing the damage so soon after the event. I was able to visit Joplin, including the hardest hit area near the hospital, in 2016, and it was really great to see how well the town was recovering. I really enjoyed Cunningham Park and its memorial to those who lost their lives in the tornado. As far as the KJLN sounding goes, that was not from an actual weather balloon, but rather a weather model’s interpretation of the environment at KJLN at that time. It’s not actual observed data, but rather a good representation of what the atmospheric profiles would’ve looked like had a balloon been released at that location at a given time. Usually, you won’t see specialized balloon launch locations, unless it’s a severe weather field project doing launches in the field.

[@steveholmes5446]

Justin, I'm from Joplin, too (living there now). On the surface, the town looks back to normal, but you don't have to scratch the surface much for the emotions to bubble up. It would be no surprise if you got a bit of PTSD. It's not just for soldiers and first responders. Add teachers, preachers, counselors, hairdressers, hotel maids, cab drivers, hospital janitorial and laundry workers and journalists to that list. Anyone exposed to the trauma of the survivors.

[@80sNewWaveGeek]

Question: what were the conditions for the main storm cluster to move SE while the new supercells (incl the Joplin Tor supercell) were moving NE?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

The main Joplin supercell was moving to the right (E/ESE), but the storms that merged with it may have started off moving to the NE. The new storms were just likely not right-movers at that point (i.e. they hadn't fully developed and become dominant right movers yet).

[@StayPrimal]

That was very interesting thank you

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for watching!

[@kenthompson5723]

Very informative video. Thank you. When y'all talk about "height falls" or "height rises", I tend to think of the word "height" as being >>> pressure. So that we could think of a "height rise" as actually being rising barometric pressure. It seems that professionals use the "protective vocabulary" to mask weather concepts to "protect" their profession from outsiders. At least that's my impression.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you...I can assure you, that's not going on here. We simply can't use pressure when analyzing upper air maps because an upper air map is a map of constant pressure...for example, on the 500 mb map, everywhere on the map is 500 mb; pressure doesn't change anywhere on the map. Changes in height aloft are related to pressure changes at the surface, however.

[@kenthompson5723]

@@ConvectiveChronicles Thanks very much for the explanation.

[@eganyoung1352]

Great analysis! What radar program do you use?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! I use the NOAA Weather and Climate Toolkit at www.ncdc.noaa.gov/wct/. It's a free program that gives you archived radar and even satellite data going back to the 1990s.

[@eganyoung1352]

@@ConvectiveChronicles thank you so much! :)

[@Mysterious-Outdoors]

Just discovered your channel today well done and you gained my subscription 👏. You may want a cold beverage to sip on because you get a lot of information out at an impressive rate lol. Looking forward to future videos!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you for the kind words; I really appreciate it!

[@davidnorth3411]

Sir , after visiting your overview I want to thank you for your in depth explanation , I believe every school student should have at least a grasp of understanding of how these dangerous storms form , education develops a constructive approach to warranting better community alerts .Their have been events in the past with killer tornadoes that provided no warnings , giving no indications of threat .

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! I agree, students in severe weather hotspots should have at least a baseline understanding of severe storm formation, behaviors, etc.

[@F5Storm1]

Are you going to do one on the Tri-State tornado of 1925?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Perhaps, although it is tough to find presentable weather data for historical events like that, and I did go through the Tri-State case briefly in my 2021 quad-state supercell breakdown: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j322gqWtrc-XmZY

[@jeffzebert4982]

Tulsa, Oklahoma was included in the hatched 10% tornado risk on May 22, 2011; but luckily, there was NO tornado there. Indeed, Tulsa didn't get significant rainfall until the next day and the day after that; but no severe storms that I recall.

[@ChrisJones-lw8ss]

Thank you, bro.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks for watching!

[@mdutchy2582]

I live in Panama City. About six months after Hurricane Michael I met a customer who moved here after his home was destroyed in Joplin. If you guessed that his home here was destroyed as well, you guessed correctly. Poor fella but I’ll tell you, he was in good spirits about it all.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Oh wow, that is some massive bad luck. Glad he was at least in good spirits about it, and hope he's back on his feet now.

[@michaellovely6601]

Oof. Makes me think about how some people believe that if Jim Cantore shows up in their town bad weather is bound to happen. There's a song on KZbin called "Jim Cantore's Coming to Town."

[@chriswilson1845]

Amazing video! What would you suggest to someone looking to get further into the science of the possible forecast and understanding of meteorology(besides higher education)?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! Shameless plug, but I have some resources on the channel here that may help, including forecast discussions for past events and video series on how to analyze soundings and weather maps, with lots more in the works. Some other great resources are the NOAA Jet Stream learning modules, as well as Tim Vasquez’s book series. Links below! noaa.gov/jetstream weathergraphics.com

[@chriswilson1845]

Awesome, I'll check it out!@@ConvectiveChronicles

[@HA-lc4ik]

I remember that day. I was by my grandparents in the northern Wisconsin area. Lots of tornado outbreaks that day. I remember it cuz I had a baseball game that day. The sky was blue and all the sudden it looked really really black Storm came in really quick and it went away after awhile

[@fungillooo]

Jarral also had a gravity wave associated with it, those things seem to make tornados very anomalous in nature

[@johnshields6852]

It's crszy how mesocyclones can just be strong thunderstorms without tornados, but when everything's lined up just so they drop tornados, the way Joplin was hit, I can see why people sometimes feel the tornado was after them, one side of the street gets wiped out and the other can have little or no damage. RIP 🙏

[@215_Philly_4for4]

2011 was such an abnormal weather year. Earthquake in the north east, record tornado outbreaks, and I know I’m missing more

[@michaellovely6601]

A devastating tsunami in Japan.

[@Evdafawth]

Brimfield, MA had a (minor) tornado that year, and that area isn't exactly flat grassland.

[@215_Philly_4for4]

@@Evdafawth I remember this. Crazy

[@tonystewartfan2014]

Man I can’t believe what this done it hits so close to home less then 40 minutes from home. I was only six at the time so I didn’t remember anything but the St. John’s and the Home Depot.

[@Duck_87]

I know how to read soundings but I don’t know everything, but when you say that the surface etc… is very moist or a “moist layer” How do you determine that by looking at the environmental temperature? Is it when the temperature rises near or at the surface? Or does it have to deal with the dewpoint and temperature spread? And can you do some new sounding videos with above beginner level material? Please and thank you sir. If you have the time.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

When I say a layer is “moist,” I’m referring to the temperature dew-point spread being very low in that layer. Specifically, the “deep moist layer” I talk about often is the layer that extends up from the surface that features the temperature and dew point profiles very close to each other. The farther up that layer extends, the deeper that moist layer is, and generally you need a deep moist layer for sustained severe convection. What kind of new sounding videos are you looking for? I covered most of what goes into looking at soundings (and how I analyze them) in the skew-T/hodograph series, but what else are you looking for specifically?

[@Duck_87]

@@ConvectiveChronicles thank you I didn't know you had this many videos on it I'm going to watch them all. Thank you for taking the time out to respond.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@Duck_87 My pleasure; let me know if you have any questions, and if there's anything else you'd like me to cover in future videos.

[@echo-channel77]

What's horrifying about this is that on reflectivity, it's not all that special looking, base velocity - yes, definite rotation, but I think some key moments occurred between sweeps (which is a topic all to itself as even today it takes way too long). It's not until you look at the vertical profiles not more than an hour before this demon spawned that you truly see how nasty it looked. I think it's realistic that within the next decade, once AI and quantum computing cost less than the GDP of a small country, there should be specific region warnings at least 30-45 minutes prior. If they can utilize drones for real-time atmospheric data collection, possibly even longer.

[@cecilpotter1229]

I live 2 blocks from the high school, it was a Day I will never forget, The smell of Gas from the cars and from the houses that weren't there any more, was Eye watering, I smoke, Can you imagine not having a cigarette. 😳🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I can laugh now.

[@chad3452]

in 2011 i had jus moved in with my wife the month prior of this tornado! i was 32yo she was 34yo we watched joplin footage in complete horror... she is now gone from this Earth as of april 23' 😭😭😭 RIP baby i miss you very much i love you so much... this seems like yesterday we were watching this footage like twister dorks

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Very sorry for your loss

[@donniewinter5331]

You should do the super Tuesday 08 outbreak and the Jackson TN tornado, there's a video of the tornado when it hit union college pure darkness and u can hear the beast and the Jonesboro ef4 long tack monster

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

That event is on my list!

[@DaydreamNative]

Those 'feeder' showers often seem to precede intensification/tornadogenesis IME.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Yes, there’s been a good bit of research showing that a decent percentage of significant tornadoes are associated with mergers.

[@frankxaoz1286]

💔 my brother and his family lost everything that day.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

I’m really sorry to hear that.

[@tornadostories]

I really hope that they are doing better now.

[@joseph-frankbrocchus6575]

Still another great video / I am a great fan of yours trying to learn the knowledge of all the graphs which I have to admit is sometime confusing for me / I had a question, so the Joplin tornado was not really from 1 supercell. It was from a series of supercells that sort of merged into one of those M CS I think that’s the abbreviation for when storms merge? Anyway, thanks

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! No, the Joplin tornado was from a single, dominant supercell that had other storms merge into it. It still remained its identity as a supercell throughout this process; an MCS occurs when storms are organized in a line, which wasn't the case here.

[@joseph-frankbrocchus6575]

@@ConvectiveChronicles Thank you for the information for tomorrow’s storm January 7 / I looked at a video of hurricane Ian, and after the center passes through the Port Charlotte area, an “extreme wind warning” was issued and what really gets your attention with this warning are the words “ treat this as if a tornado was approaching your area” / I felt like I was looking at a tornado video that was lasting for hours in the same place

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@joseph-frankbrocchus6575 Yeah, I've chased hurricanes, and it's like experiencing tornadic winds but for hours on end, unlike the few seconds during a tornado's passage. It's a pretty crazy experience.

[@joseph-frankbrocchus6575]

Thanks for taking the time to always answer or respond to comments, I know it must be hard with all that you get // one last thing I wanted to ask about this, I got the impression from reading and looking at other videos, that even if there had not been a tornado, this was still a very powerful and damaging storm

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@joseph-frankbrocchus6575 I'm always happy to respond to comments! You are correct; very strong winds and large hail were associated with this storm, as well as flooding. So this storm certainly packed a punch, tornado or not.

[@railfanmaximstill7279]

13:58 It is possible the tail end of that system contributed to making that gravity go that far down south. 19:24 if it shapes into a position that looks like a Shotgun that's a guaranted PDS Watch. The loaded gun means that everything's in place for an Extremely deadly outbreak or one single tornado that will go down in history forever And be deadly and violent

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

An EF-4 passed over mt town and still gives me nightmares. I cannot fathom the danger of tornadoes like these. An EF4 took down buildings that were commercial. Thjs was when I was a kid. Parents woke me up at night and we opined the basement window. My dad did. The beast must have been close because our ears were struck. Like a roar from hell and then we all felt a pop and silence. Ringing too. That tornado was just a fraction of what struck Joplin. Descended may be what writers would document. But that EF4 did so much damage. To property? I remember people honking as if it was an inconvenience. But as a kid you wonder what could be that strong. Learn safety practices. The roar pops eardrums. This was a tornado that was a gentle tornado compared to this one but it was rated EF4. Nightmares remain Rest in peace to all those lost. Sincerely. These systems produce absolute fury

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

Dad shut the basement window quickly because the lights flickered and then went dark. The weatherman is still a meteorologist on air. He said "Uhmmm, this doesn't look good" Hes a great man and saved lives that night. The worst storm I've seen

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

It was a night i won't forget. Peoples homes made of stone facades were gone. It would've happened to us but storms act weirdly. They skip like a record player. We could hear the roar through double glaze glass and a sturdy home. It sounded like the void calling. I cried in my mom's arms and she was shaking. We are lucky. That was rated EF4 but we saw commercial structures that looked... you know. Gone.

[@Barbptravis]

I’m not sure but the April 26 and 27th 2011 Tornado out break might have over shadowed the Joplin Tornado in May.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

It probably did, but both events were equally deadly and were both notable in their own ways.

[@encounteringwildlife]

If anything, the Joplin tornado alone had more national recognition than the April 27th outbreak.

[@virtualunitedpilot]

I'm curious if the tri state tornado was a cold core

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

I don't think it was, looks like it was your typical warm sector deal.

[@virtualunitedpilot]

@@ConvectiveChronicles even with how unusually long it lasted and it's strength, it still holds all the records, it would make sense if it was a cold core

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@virtualunitedpilot Cold core tornadoes are usually not terribly strong or long-lived, given that they thrive more on the thermodynamics of the environment rather than kinematics (i.e. wind shear). It did form on a surface low but had a broad warm sector out ahead of it and was fueled by very strong wind shear and a discrete/semi-discrete storm mode. I did a break down of the Tri-State Tornado environment at the end of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j322gqWtrc-XmZY

[@LJ-fo6nk]

If you could do a case study of Jarrell that would be interesting!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Jarrell is high up on my list! Such an interesting event!

[@LJ-fo6nk]

@@ConvectiveChronicles Oh yes- The devastation it did is unparalleled in ny mind. Nothing existing. A detailed analysis is going to be awesome, how is managed to form to a twister that poweful would be mind blowing.

[@FergieThunder]

I live nearby and after the tornado, I went with my mom to help out first responders with water. I had to sit in the Academy parking lot on Range Line and they were just stacking up wrecked cars

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

That had to have been brutal to see in person. Very cool you were able to help first responders out.

[@FergieThunder]

@@ConvectiveChronicles 10 year old me was pretty traumatized. It was probably the first time I ever thought about mortality

[@aaronjones1469]

Nice case study Trey. Your good at these analyses and this science. Hopefully, nothing like this doesn't occur again, but with the climate changing nothing is guaranteed anymore.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! For sure; hopefully, something like this doesn't happen again, but I have a feeling it will.

[@aaronjones1469]

@@ConvectiveChronicles your welcome.

[@StormChaserGabe]

Storms Q told me to check you out