Joplin, Missouri
Each June, Joplin hosts the Boomtown Run, a half marathon, 5K, and children's run. The event attracts runners from across the country, and features USTA certified courses which start and end in the historic downtown area. Celebrity runners featured at the prerace banquet have included Bart Yasso, Sarah Reinerston, Suzy Favor-Hamilton, and Jeff Galloway. In 2011, due to the devastating EF5 tornado that struck Joplin on May 22, just three weeks before the run, the event was transformed in the Boomtown Run Day of Service. About 270 individuals registered for the race after the tornado struck, knowing their proceeds would benefit tornado recovery. On June 11, about 270 registered runners and volunteers turned out to help clean debris and sort donations, contributing more than 1,200 hours of service. On August 7, 2012, the Village of Silver Creek and the City of Joplin voted to have Silver Creek annexed into Joplin City limits.
Tornado outbreak sequence of June 3–11, 2008
A strong jet stream moved northeast across the Great Plains region and a strong surface low in western Kansas strengthened as it moved to the Nebraska-South Dakota border. Ahead of the low, very warm and moist air spread throughout the South Central United States into Nebraska, eastern sections of South Dakota and the upper Mississippi Valley. The combination of strong winds and warm and moist air created conditions favorable for strong thunderstorms. On June 5, a high risk of severe weather was issued for six different states in the Midwestern United States, with a moderate risk area surrounding the high risk area. Forecasters had warned of a potentially historic outbreak, as computer forecasting models for June 5 resembled those on June 8, 1974, when 39 tornadoes struck the southern Great Plains and killed 22 people. Wichita State University canceled evening classes because of the weather predictions. Severe weather began developing across eastern Colorado and northwestern Kansas during the morning and into the early afternoon, producing several weak tornadoes in the process. An EF1 tornado impacted a campground near Kellogg, Iowa and injured two people. Despite extremely favorable conditions, severe weather for the day was limited and the tornadoes generally caused minimal damage.