May 21 – 23
Main articles: May 2011 tornado outbreak and 2011 Joplin tornado
| EF0 | EF1 | EF2 | EF3 | EF4 | EF5 |
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
On May 21, a small system of thunderstorms began to develop in Brown County, Kansas. At the same time, another system formed to the southeast of Emporia, Kansas. The Brown county system developed into a tornado over Shawnee County, Kansas and touched down over Topeka, Kansas for several seconds causing minor damage nearby. Meanwhile the Emporia system continued to move to the northeast, where an EF3 tornado heavily damaged the town of Reading, Kansas. One person was killed there, several others were injured and at least 20 houses were destroyed.[57] After hitting Topeka it hit several towns including Oskaloosa, Kansas, doing extensive damage to that community. Several other tornadoes touched down in the region that evening.[58]
A moderate risk of severe weather was issued for much of the Midwest south to Oklahoma for May 22. The first tornadic supercell that day developed in the mid-afternoon hours over the western Twin Cities with a swath of damage, especially in and around Minneapolis, Minnesota.[59] An intense tornado also tracked towards Harmony, Minnesota that afternoon and a tornado emergency was issued. Late that afternoon, at about 5:15 pm CDT (2215 UTC), a very large and intense multiple-vortex tornado resulted in catastrophic damage in Joplin, Missouri. Many houses and businesses were flattened and some even were blown away in Joplin, the main hospital was heavily damaged and many people were reported to have been trapped in destroyed houses. The Weather Channel video showed entire communities flattened. Early reports suggest there were at least 116 fatalities.[60]
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