Tornado Alley

For the book by William S. Burroughs, see Tornado Alley (book).
A diagram of tornado alley based on 1 tornado or more per decade. Rough location (red), and its contributing weather systems

Tornado Alley, also known as Tornado Valley, is a loosely defined location of the central United States and Canada where tornadoes are most frequent.[1] The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Tornado climatologists distinguish peaks in activity in certain areas[2] and storm chasers have long recognized the Great Plains tornado belt.[3]

As a colloquial term there are no definitively set boundaries of Tornado Alley, but the area common to most definitions extends from Texas, through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, North Dakota, Montana, Ohio, and eastern portions of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.[4][5] Research suggests that the main alley may be shifting eastward away from the Great Plains,[6][7][8] and that tornadoes are also becoming more frequent in the northern and eastern parts of Tornado Alley where it reaches the Canadian Prairies, Ohio, Michigan, and Southern Ontario.[9][10]

  1. ^ Glickman, Todd S. (2000). "Tornado Alley". Glossary of Meteorology (2nd ed.). Boston: American Meteorological Society. ISBN 978-1-878220-34-9. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference smaller alleys was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Prentice, Robert A. (Nov–Dec 1992). "When to Chase". Stormtrack. 16 (1): 8–11.
  4. ^ "Significant Tornado Alley". www.spc.noaa.gov.
  5. ^ "Tornado Alley" (PDF). Smithsonian Institution. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 18, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  6. ^ Levenson, Michael; Patel, Vimal; Grullón Paz, Isabella; Ives, Mike; Choi-Schagrin, Winston (December 11, 2021). "Tornado outbreaks seem to be occurring in greater 'clusters,' but the role that climate change plays in them is unclear". The New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  7. ^ Gensini, Vittorio A.; Brooks, Harold E. (17 October 2018). "Spatial trends in United States tornado frequency". npj Climate and Atmospheric Science. 1 (1): 38. Bibcode:2018npCAS...1...38G. doi:10.1038/s41612-018-0048-2. S2CID 134206119.
  8. ^ Coleman, Timothy A.; Thompson, Richard L.; Forbes, Gregory S. (29 April 2024). "A Comprehensive Analysis of the Spatial and Seasonal Shifts in Tornado Activity in the United States". Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. 63 (6): 717–730. doi:10.1175/JAMC-D-23-0143.1.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference usask was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Stein, Emma; Marini, Miriam; Moran, Darcie (27 May 2022). "Michiganders should take tornadoes more seriously after Gaylord, experts say". Detroit Free Press.