The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has published a detailed aerial survey of damage following the tornado which struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, killing at least 125 people. This imagery, showing the full extent of the tornado’s groundtrack, is available through an interactive map, but it’s awkward to access – you have to click on thumbnails and download each 20MB image tile separately.

To make it more accessible, I’ve stitched together a 4 mile (6km) stretch of tiles following the destructive path of the tornado, and put them in Microsoft’s Zoom-it application (above), allowing you to view the high resolution imagery in one go. Note: the app runs smoother if you have Microsoft Silverlight installed, but it isn’t essential.

Here’s the NOAA tornado imagery viewer: Joplin tornado

Also See: Before and after aerial shots of the city

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