The tornado outbreak of April 10–11, 2001, was a large tornado outbreak which affected the central

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

on April 10–11, 2001. During the two-day outbreak, it produced a total of 79 tornadoes across eight states including

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

and

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Four people were killed, 18 injured, and more than $23 million in damage was reported.NCDC Storm Events-Select State
The fatalities were reported in Oklahoma, Iowa and Missouri including two from a single tornado in

Wapello County, Iowa Wapello County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 35,437. The county seat is Ottumwa, Iowa, Ottumwa. The county was formed on February 17 ...

. The strongest tornado tracked for over 75 miles from northern Missouri to near

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

causing extensive damage to several structures. In addition to that storm, a supercell on April 10 produced the largest and most damaging hail swath in history; as well as ten tornadoes.

Tornado event

The first tornadoes developed during the late afternoon across west-central Missouri and mostly tracked near

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...

eastward towards the

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Metropolitan Area during the first half of the evening before weakening in Illinois. In addition to the damaging hail (see Tri-State hailstorm section for details), several weak tornadoes were confirmed. One tornado, however, killed a person inside a mobile home near the Fulton area in

Callaway County Callaway County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 44,283. Its county seat is Fulton. With a border formed by the Missouri River, the county was organized Novemb ...

A new wave of tornadoes touched down further to the west in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas during the late evening and overnight hours. One person was killed in

Coal County, Oklahoma Coal County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,266. Its county seat is Coalgate. History Coal County was formed at statehood from the former Shappaway County (later renamed Atoka C ...

by an F2 tornado that threw the mobile home for about 200 yards before being destroyed. Several other significant tornadoes also caused extensive damage across southern Oklahoma, northern Texas and both the

and Texas Panhandles until activity slowed down after dawn on April 11. A final wave of tornadoes developed during the late morning and the afternoon hours mostly across Iowa where some of the strongest tornadoes took place. One tornado during the late morning carved a path of about 75 miles from northeast of Kansas City, Missouri to just southwest of Des Moines, Iowa. Several homes were destroyed or heavily damaged (earning an F3 rating) although there were no fatalities with this storm Later during the day, an F2 tornado killed two people in

Agency, Iowa Agency is a city in Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 620 at the 2020 census. It is the historic site of an Indian trading post and the grave of Chief Wapello. History An Indian agency was established here in 1838 and ...

( Wapello County) and destroyed or heavily damaged dozens of structures including a Lodge. The outbreak ended across western Michigan during the late afternoon.

Tornado table

Confirmed tornadoes

April 10 event

April 11 event

Tri-state hailstorm

On April 10, a series of long-lived

supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone, a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (su ...

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

s moved from south-southwest of

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...

, across Missouri and often along

I-70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, just outside Baltimore, Maryland. I-70 appr ...

, impacting Columbia before striking the

metropolitan area, continuing into southern Illinois. The storms spawned ten weak tornadoes, one of which resulted in the first tornado fatality in Missouri since 1994.10 April 2001
Additionally, it produced the largest (in area) and longest (in distance and duration) recorded swaths of very large

hail Hail is a form of solid Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailsto ...

, up to

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

size, and also caused the most expensive damages of any hailstorm in U.S. history. At $2 billion in insured losses, it was more costly in real dollars than the most damaging tornado at that time, the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado of May 3, 1999. The cost of both were eclipsed by the catastrophic Joplin tornado in 2011, which cost $2.8 billion. Hundreds of vehicles outside a Ford Assembly Plant in Hazelwood were damaged as well as almost every house within the city of Florissant in St. Louis County. Many automobile dealerships lost their entire auto inventory while thousands of additional homes were damaged. At Lambert International Airport, 22 jetliners suffered hail damage, while 10 aircraft of the

Missouri National Guard The Missouri National Guard (MONG), commonly known as the Missouri Guard, is a component of the Army National Guard and Missouri State Department of the National Guard. It is composed of Army National Guard, Army and Missouri Air National Guard, A ...

were severely damaged.

References

External links

NOAA page of the April 10 hail storm and tornado event
(NWS St. Louis)
Scientific Paper of the HP supercell event
{{DEFAULTSORT:2001-04-10 Tornado Outbreak F3, EF3 and IF3 tornadoes 04-10 Tornadoes in Iowa Tornadoes in Kansas Tornadoes in Missouri Tornadoes in Nebraska Tornadoes in Oklahoma Tornadoes in Texas Tornado, 04-10

Tornado Outbreak A tornado outbreak is the occurrence of multiple tornadoes spawned by the same Synoptic scale meteorology, synoptic scale weather system. The number of tornadoes required to qualify as an outbreak typically are at least six to ten, with at least ...