Tornado Alley - Tracking One of the Most Destructive Forces in Nature

Discover the history and science behind Tornado Alley, the region where warm and cool air collide to create ideal conditions for severe weather, leading to devastating tornadoes in the US.

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[generallypleasantjenny]

I’m a Midwesterner, I’ve been though five in my life. They ranged from zero destruction to “What town?” They are terrifying.

[DerptyDerptyDUM]

As a Midewesterner who is regularly menaced by tornadoes, I think the most terrifying thing is how arbitrary they are. A tornado can completely destroy a single house on a street, just level it to the foundation, and every other house on the street is perfectly fine. At least with a hurricane or earthquake, everybody knows they're screwed! :P

[bookwyrm]

I've lived in tornado alley most of my life. They're creepy yet fascinating. The way the sky turns an ugly bruised green gives me chills every time.

[giuniral]

El Reno's 2013 2.6 mile wide tornado was a monster. RIP Tim, Paul, and Carl. =(

[lacyLor]

The deadly Greensburg KS tornado of 2007 is quite a story. It was a rare EF5 that was 1.7 miles wide (wider than the town itself) with over 200mph wind and stayed on the ground over an hour. Greensburg was hit directly and flattened, 95% destroyed and the other 5% damaged. They decided to rebuild their city as a “green” city and is now zero emissions and 100% powered by renewable energy.

[AmarantheDreamer]

"Tornado season" seems to be changing too. I've lived in Tornado Alley all my life, and tornadoes in December didn't happen. Now, late fall/ early winter and late winter/ early spring seem to be the worst times for severe storms, rather than April-July like when I was a child. February is reserved for severe winter storms, which also used to be a rarer occurrence here.

[mtbalandin]

The clip you kept showing is a really interesting one showing the record breaking el-reno tornado. The main tornado is the huge dark mass on the left which measured 2.6 miles wide, the tornado in the middle of the picture is a satellite tornado going around the main tornado. The el-reno tornado is also well known because it’s the one tornado that demonstrated the weaknesses in the ef scale and also the only tornado to kill multiple storm chasers, catching some of the most experienced chasers out there and for four chasers fatally.

[voodoojedizin]

I saw my first twister, I was about six years old in Kansas and I will never forget the sound of it. All the neighbors would come to our house to shelter in our basement, because it was completely enclosed with a cinder block and concrete ceiling. I remember dad taking us out to a tree and wood fence that were completely imbedded with strands of wheat, imagine the power it took to do such a thing. And also seeing dozens of power and telephone poles snapped off at the bottom laying across the road. And I recall the stories of the devastation of people's homes and farms and a lifetime of work being destroyed in minute. I remember several twister parties, is what we call them, when everyone in the neighborhood would shelter in our house and a lot of people trying to not look scared.

[Nicdonova]

Kansas native here, tornados are no joke. Yes there are folks who love to see this kind of weather like that ( I myself am one) but they have no problems wiping out a town. Almost everyone here has some story about where they were about a certain storm from some year. Like the Andover tornado of 91, or when Greensburg was wiped out in 2007. It's amazing how nature can be like that. From March to June usually, y'all gotta be watching out for this stuff. Good work Simon, you did well on this 🙂

[_Hodgepodge]

I live in Oklahoma, generally considered the tornado capital of the world. Tornadoes are a normal occurrence here. An EF3 tornado ripped through my neighborhood 2 weeks ago. Thankfully, no one died.
I am also surprised the 2013 Moore EF5 wasn't brought up as it was the most powerful tornado measured so far and would have been considered an EF6 if that classification existed.

[rockroll]

I played golf near Huntsville AL outbreak in the 2010s in the mid-2010s. Tree lines were flattened and the sod had been ripped off the course in many areas. The damage was incredible. As an American who lives in tornado alley, you've done a great job, Simon. Someone from the UK who can cite accurate facts on tornadoes, you've clearly done a lot of work to keep the video accurate.

[KiidSaturn]

Resident of joplin Missouri and know first hand how bad they can get, 2011 is considered one of the biggest tornados to hit. It destroyed half of the city with an EF5 tornado

[tubapower]

I lived through the EF4 tornado in Dixie Alley you were speaking of. I will never forgot how loud it was and then…silence. I opened my back door and it was like a bomb went off. I volunteered to clear a lot of trees out and it took us hours and hours.

[mtvdvm]

Actually just lost the house me and my family were framing ourselves for my fiancé and I to what we believe was a small tornado. Here in central Texas when you get knocked down you get back up. So we salvaged all the lumber we could and framing is already underway again.

[saeveth]

Iowa here, now we not only have tornados, we apparently have to deal with derechos. This was still something that happened before, but now is becoming more frequent. Take a look at the derecho that hit Cedar Rapids in 2020. Straight line winds of up to 140mph. Very interesting stuff if you wanted to check out some more unusual weather patterns for the midwest.

[JadedJessica]

I'm native to a state in the southeast, and I'm convinced that the frequency of tornados here, even in just the last 20 years, has risen noticeably. I don't recall ever experiencing even one tornado as a child, but as an adult, I've been through many. While most of the tornados that have struck my area weren't considered devastating, it's still an alarming trend.

[jeffreywhittle]

I remember hearing the term "scouring" back in the '80s, which means when F5 tornadoes can actually rip the asphalt pavement on streets and houses concrete foundations from the ground. Incredible.

[RyanPuller]

Dixie alley native here. I've also lived in Oklahoma and currently live in Illinois. I think tornados scared me more in Mississippi than anywhere else. It's much harder to see where the danger is coming from due to the terrain but they were far more common in Oklahoma. Which is saying something cause they are VERY common in the deep south.

[lbaseball]

I would have loved to be the author of this episode as Meteorology is my passion and my degree. Major nitpick though, tornadic formation is so much more complex than as described, but the biggest factor to their formation is wind shear. Wind shear by basic definition is the change in wind velocity with height, and, for tornadoes, directional and speed shear are needed to get rotation within a parent thunderhead. I could go on as I was fortunate enough to learn from some of the best experts in the field and got to talk with famous researchers from across the globe. Love the show and keep it up!

[RevinSOR]

As someone who's lived in a Flood Plain, In Hurricane Country, experienced an Earthquake and a Tornado. It's amazing just how powerful and destructive nature is.