Community Chat

[gardenman]

When you get farther east from the Rockies, tornadoes tend to be associated with hurricanes/severe storm systems, so a few Gulf Coast/eastern hurricanes in the reporting period can skew the results if you're only using the number of hurricanes over a certain specified period of time. A single hurricane can spawn dozens of small tornadoes.

Hurricane Ivan in 2004 spawned 120 tornadoes. Hurricane Frances in 2004 spawned 103 tornadoes. Hurricane Rita in 2005 spawned 98 tornadoes. Hurricane Harvey spawned 52 tornadoes in 2017. Hurricane Florence spawned 44 tornadoes in 2018. Selective use of data can yield whatever results one wants that data to show. By picking the "right" time period you can find data to support pretty much anything you want to support. 

It's not so much that tornado alley is moving as it's that there were several hurricanes that spawned a lot of tornadoes in the period in question (1980-2020.) Take those atypical hurricanes out of the equation and odds are Tornado alley is right where it's always been. It might even shift farther west if you take those hurricane-spawned storms out of the equation. A typical hurricane will spawn around ten tornadoes. By picking a time period where you had an atypical number of tornadoes spawned in hurricanes you can say "Tornado alley has moved east." Pick a period where you had fewer hurricane-spawned tornadoes, and you can "Tornado Alley has moved west!" 

Tornado Alley is where it is due to the presence of the Rockies. Unless that mountain chain moves, Tornado Alley will stay where it is. Do you get an occasional blip of tornadoes elsewhere? Absolutely. But they're the occasional blip and not a more consistent threat.  

[DrBabs]

I'm in North Texas. Haven't detected any change in the frequency, pattern, or intensity of the tornadoes we get here! And boy do we get them!!!

[songbird]

@DrBabs  North Texas and Oklahoma (especially the Tulsa area) are the epic centers of Acts of God. If there are perfect storms, they have them.  Almost no where else in the world has storms that are as violent as those in the U.S.   They even stop at the Canadian Border!  The least place for violent storms in the world is in Russia.  They have about 1-2 tornadoes every couple of years. The hottest place in the world where humans live in in a city called Jacobstan (named after a British officer)  in Pakistan.  They average over 120F through out their dry season. I know Arizona gets that, but not everyday.