Joplinx Tornado

Charlie Reidel
A receipt from a tire store in Joplin, Mo., turned up 525 miles away on a front porch in north-central Indiana, a record distance for apparent tornado debris to travel, a Purdue University storm researcher reports.

"This paper traveled more than twice as far as the longest distance recorded for debris from a storm," said Ernest Agee, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and tornado expert. The previous record was a canceled check that traveled 210 miles after the 1915 tornado in Great Bend, Kan.

The receipt, which was dated May 13 from Joplin Tire Center and folded into a quarter of its full size, landed in Royal Center, Ind., about 45 miles from West Lafayette, home of Purdue. The receipt was found Wednesday by Tia Fritz and her husband; she contacted Agee.

He told the university's news service that to reach Indiana the receipt would have to have been sucked into the tornado and then carried by the jet stream for 12 1/2 hours.

He explained that the distance paper travels is directly proportional to the intensity of the tornado. The Joplin tornado registered EF-5, the strongest, with winds topping 200 mph.