Tornado outbreak sequence of May 21–26, 2011
The tornado outbreak sequence of May 21–26, 2011 was one of the largest tornado outbreaks on record which affected the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States. Most of the tornadoes developed in a corridor from Lake Superior southwest to central Texas; isolated tornadoes occurred in other areas. An especially destructive tornado destroyed one-third of Joplin, Missouri, resulting in 158 deaths and over 1,000 injuries. The Joplin tornado is the deadliest in the U.S. since April 9, 1947, when an intense tornado killed 181 in the Woodward, Oklahoma area. Tornado-related deaths also occurred in Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. Overall, the tornado outbreak resulted in 184 deaths, 6 of those non-tornadic, making it second only to the 2011 Super Outbreak as the deadliest since 1974, and the second costliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history behind that same April 2011 outbreak, with insured damage estimated at $4–7 billion.
List of tornadoes by calendar day
In the United States tornadoes have been recorded on every day of the year and destructive tornadoes occurred during every month of the calendar. The average date of first occurrence in the U.S. is January 11. The earliest recorded tornado in a year (since 1950) was at 12:02 am on January 1, 2011 in Attala County, Mississippi (2 minutes into the year) and the latest occurrence of the first tornado was on February 15, 2003 in Marengo County, Alabama (45 days into the year).