Weather With a Twist Episode #1: Spinning Out of Control- What’s Up With Tornado Alley?

Tornadoes, also known as twisters or cyclones, can cause devastating damage. Climate change is making storms worse and changing their paths. Tornado Alley, traditionally in the central US, is shifting to other states. Tornadoes form from supercell thunderstorms with rotating columns of air. They become dangerous when a mesocyclone forms. Tornadoes can occur anywhere, not just in Tornado Alley. The threat of tornadoes changes throughout the year. In 2023, there have been more tornadoes than usual, with many occurring outside of Tornado Alley. This is due to atmospheric rivers and warmer temperatures. Climate change is expected to make storms more intense. The risk of tornadoes is increasing in the eastern US while decreasing in the Great Plains. The new tornado alley poses challenges for affected states like Arkansas. Whether you call it a twister, cyclone, or tornado, there is no debate that these wild weather events can be devastatingly damaging. Severe storms are no joke, and they seem to be growing increasingly worse. How is climate change stirring up our storms and shifting the paths of these twists of trouble to a whole new set of states here in the U.S.? If you love storms like me, or if you'd rather steer clear of any tornadic activity, you've come to the right place. Join me to talk about which states to avoid, or not, as we ask, What's up with Tornado Alley? Hi everyone, and welcome to this first ever episode of Weather with a Twist. I'm your host, Raegan Modge, and today we're talking about tornadoes, specifically, Tornado Alley itself. Being an Oklahoma native means I grew up in what has been agreed upon for years to be right in the middle of Tornado Alley, so tornadoes were a regular occurrence for me. I grew to love these storms, so imagine my excitement when I learned that just as I'm headed off to college in Arkansas, Tornado Alley seems to be packing up to move with me. But before we get into the details and history of Tornado Alley, we first need to clarify what a tornado is. According to the NOAA NSSL, or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory, a tornado is, quote, a narrow, violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground, end quote. Now twisters don't just form from any old thunderstorm, they only occur when a thunderstorm essentially graduates to what's known as a supercell. Encyclopedia Britannica writes that a supercell differs from a regular thunderstorm because it contains a vortex, a spinning column of air. While not yet visible, this vortex, known as a mesocyclone, is what appears on Doppler radar as a region of rotation around 2-6 miles in diameter within a supercell, and the National Weather Service states that this is typically found in the right, rear flank of the storm. The NSSL notes that the mesocyclone can make supercells more dangerous because it provides more time and fuel for the supercell to grow. As a supercell expands, the vortex begins to tilt, which pulls warm, moist air up and pushes cold, dry air down. The water vapor being pulled up causes the vortex to swell, resulting in the first visible signs that a tornado is forming as a funnel cloud appears. The drafts of air will then continue to force the cloud into a smaller area in faster spirals, and if there's enough downward pressure for the funnel cloud to touch down onto the ground, we have ourselves a tornado. Okay, so now that we're clear on the basics of tornado formation, we can dig into exactly where tornadoes can occur. Now you're probably familiar with the term tornado alley, but the NSSL is careful to point out that this media-given nickname can be misleading for a few reasons. First, tornadoes don't care where tornado alley is. They can form anywhere as long as the conditions we just discussed are met. In fact, tornadoes have actually been reported in all 50 states. Second, tornado alley maps may show some slight variation because the occurrence of tornadoes is measured in several different ways. One map might display tornado alley by all tornadoes, while another shows tornado county segments, and yet another only records the strongest and most violent tornadoes. But with all of these differences aside, the threat of tornadoes in the United States changes from the southeast region in the cooler months to the southern and central plains in May and June, and then again to the northern plains and midwest regions throughout early summer. So knowing all of this, we're going to focus on Encyclopedia Britannica's definition of what we typically consider to be tornado alley, in which they write, quote, When the number of tornado occurrences, their intensity, and the area they affect are considered, the center of tornado activity in the United States is unquestionably seen to exist in the western portions of the southern Great Plains. The region of maximum tornado frequency, known as tornado alley, extends from west Texas, northeast through the western and central portions of Oklahoma and Kansas, and across most of Nebraska. But is tornado alley moving? Are we to blame? An article from April 8th by ABC7 News writes that so far in 2023, there have already been 494 reported tornadoes, and this is almost double the average for this time of year. What's more, many of these storms did not occur in the plains, our traditional tornado alley, instead wreaking havoc on the southeast and midwest. Part of why this year has been so intense is due to the constant stream of atmospheric rivers that have affected the west. The storms that are forming hold so much moisture, and they're maintaining their intensity as they move east. Additionally, winter brought fewer cold fronts than usual across the eastern states, and this colder air typically wards off severe weather that is dependent on warm air and moisture to develop. With warmer temperatures earlier in the year, we have all the ingredients and a recipe for disaster, both out of season and out of state, to be prepared for such weather. And though you may be sick of storms already, this weather is likely to remain active for the upcoming months, and into the future as the planet continues to warm. The current changes to climate are certainly forecasted to become more intense before they could hope to be better. In the same article from ABC7 News, it cites a recent study that projected supercells to become more frequent in eastern U.S. and less frequent in the Great Plains, and found the risk for supercells is also increased during late winter and early spring as global temperatures increase. So what does this mean for states in this new tornado alley, and how have people already been affected? Join me next episode as we take a closer look at tornadoes right here in Little Rock, and learn more about what's next for Arkansans facing this new hurdle. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.