Where is Tornado Alley
Where is Tornado Alley? Map Images included
By Tim Baker
Some consider tornado alley as the area where only the most intense killer tornadoes are likely to occur, looking where F4 and F5 tornadoes have struck in history multiple times. Others draw tornado alley only where tornado frequency is the highest, looking at areas that have recorded multiple tornado touchdowns consistently year after year. Some years certain states seem to get enough tornadoes to qualify as part of tornado alley but, when looking at tornadoes over many years in that state you see that it was just an unusual period for them. With many areas experiencing warmer than normal temperatures, traditional tornado alley maps don’t seem to represent those climate changes accurately.
I believe we need to rethink where tornado alley is with these climate changes. A warm January will lead to a shift in tornadoes to more north and eastern states than traditional tornado alley maps represent.
Many arguments over what states are in tornado alley take place, so to be fair qualify what criteria you are using in determining tornado alley. In 2004 people in Illinois were at greater risk than most of the areas people think of as tornado alley.
If you were to be exact about tornado alley, it would really be made up of hundreds of little strips, and never one large alley. Tornado alley maps are all made up of a general area from data taken over a long period of time. Tornado alley should be thought of on a more yearly basis also, since weather patterns can change, making some states harder hit one year versus others, like Illinois in 1925, 1974 and 2004.
Some people have asked if tornadoes appear everywhere in tornado alley. The fact is on all tornado alley maps there are areas that have never had a tornado hit there. Remember, not every city in tornado alley has been struck by a tornado while others have had many tornadoes hit them.
The 1974 super tornado outbreak took place in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. How many maps include these states in Tornado Alley? Not very many, some don’t include any of them; even I don’t include all of them. States such as Florida also have many small tornadoes but because the intensity of most of them is low, it is seldom considered as part of Tornado Alley by anyone.
In 1925 the Tri-State tornado killed 695 people in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, yet many don’t include these in Tornado Alley, I do. In November 2002 a tornado outbreak took place in Alabama, Tennessee and Ohio, Killing at least 36 people. Friday, September 20th 2002 a tornado outbreak hit Indiana, I include these states in Tornado Alley, others don’t. History tells me Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee are dangerous tornado states.