Why The United States Gets So Many Powerful Tornadoes

Tornadoes are one of Earth's most incredible natural phenomena. But while every continent gets tornadoes to some degree, the United States in particular gets far more, at a higher frequency, to a greater degree of strength than almost anywhere else in the world. In today's episode we'll explore where tornadoes are most often seen in the world, why the United States gets so many, and where specifically you're most likely to see a tornado.

Some photos and videos come from Pexels, Pixabay. Attribution below:

Anish Ps
Nathan Stein
Tom Fisk

[earlybird]

The Fujita Scale was replaced with the Enhanced Fujita Scale in 2007. Tornado Alley does get a lot of tornadoes but Dixie Alley gets a lot too

[iboKirby]

Fun fact, after the scale was created, the first F5 tornado was recorded in Cass County, North Dakota. Where Fargo is.

[tamarakelli]

You forgot to mention the actual number one reason Alabama and MS tornadoes are so destructive, most of our tornadoes are rain wrapped, and we have to use the radar as a guide. When you see pictures of photogenic tornadoes, it's not from the lower southeast. Look it up. Ask any chaser. We are known for rainwrapped tornadoes and huge trees and hills. They, too, hide tornadoes. Love your videos!

[cviller]

You used the Fujita scale in your video but it hasn’t been used since 2007. They now use the Enhanced Fujita scale where the wind speeds are significantly different than the Fujita scale. For example anything over 200 mph is considered an EF5 tornado.

[niromanti]

I live in south eastern Tennessee and can confirm that almost every Tornado that hits in the southeast hits at night in the wee hours of the morning. During the spring time, you need to have some kind of alert system that will wake you if a tornado touches down in your area. Honestly, I can't remember the last time a Tornado didnt hit in the middle of the night here (11-4 am).

[origin]

The Fujita Scale is no longer in use and F6 has only ever been used twice in history, both were downgraded to F5. The EF scale has been used since 2007 by the National Weather Service.

Not to mention, the traditional tornado alley you outline in the video no longer has the most tornadoes in the US. Tornadoes more commonly occur in the Southeast US in 'Dixie Alley' now. Especially the Deep South such as Mississippi and Alabama.

[jeremymoeller]

I live in Tulsa. We have at least one tornado in our area per year. Part of the reason why Oklahoma has a low death rate when concerning tornadoes: Oklahoma has some of the most advanced weather equipment, knowledgeable meteorologists, and other weather savy personnel in the nation. This provides adequate warning prior to most tornadic activity. Also most communities are very weather aware and lots have storm shelters or areas of their home designated as safe spaces that we can go to during strong storms.
Every Wednesday at noon during a clear afternoon the tornado sirens run a minute long audible test. It's fun to see the serious look on visitors faces when the sirens run their tests. 😜

[jovanweismiller]

I've lived in tornado alley most of my life. I've had three go over my head. I've learned to respect them!

[Dwhite]

The scale you used was the old Fujita scale. The new scale which came into effect in 2007 is the Enhanced Fujita scale of EF0 to EF5.

[SuperTylerMan]

Just as a note;
When the original Fujita scale came out, it was ranked between F0 - F5. F6 was not a such thing when it was originally released. Since then, in February of 2007, the US switched over to the new Enhanced Fujita Scale, and Canada soon followed in 2013. EF tornado ranked from EF0 - EF5.

[bmedic]

The Fujita scale has been replaced by the Enhanced Fujita Scale which stops at EF5, there is no EF6 on the "new" scale which has been in place since 2007.

[bradyryan]

Missouri is also part of tornado alley.
Ohio gets pretty frequent tornados too.
In 1974 and 2002, Ohio was the target of a few tornado outbreaks.

[yxngbt]

Fun fact: Dixie alley is just as active nowadays

[napalm_lipbalm]

An F5 hit Joplin, Mo (just to the east of Kansas) It was traumatic. It destroyed the hospital where people were going to after being injured they had to even relocate the patients😳

[HaydenWX]

Hey, Geoff, my name is Hayden, and I am a storm chaser and a meteorology major in college. You got a couple facts wrong and made some mischaracterizations in this video.
1) There is no such thing as an F6. The scale only goes to F5. Ted Fujita originally contemplated rating a tornado in Xenia, Ohio, an F6 (and a tornado in Lubbock, Texas as well), but decided against in due to the fact that no conventional structure can survive F5 winds.
2) The Fujita scale is no longer in use in the United States. We use the Enhanced Fujita scale, which scales tornadoes based off of 31 unique damage indicators. Its categorization goes like this:
EF0…65-85 mph
EF1…86-110 mph
EF2…111-135 mph
EF3…136-165 mph
EF4…166-200 mph
EF5…201 mph and greater
3) it’s not necessarily the difference in temperatures and air masses that makes tornado alley prolific in producing tornadoes, it delves deeper into thermodynamics and kinematics than that. Tornadoes need a balance of 2 atmospheric parameters in order to occur, and they can happen in any temperature. The first of these parameters is called vorticity. In layman’s terms, vorticity is the spin of the atmosphere. A specific kind of vorticity is called wind shear, which happens when winds are traveling in different directions and/or at different speeds in the same area. Wind shear helps with 2 things: thunderstorm organization by tilting the downdrafts away from the updraft, and making the updraft rotate. Wind shear is measured in Storm Relative Helicity, and the SI unit for that is m2/s2. Any storm that can take advantage of wind shear and organizes so it’s updraft rotates is called a supercell, and supercells are the storms that *typically* produce tornadoes. The other environmental parameter is called CAPE, or Convective Available Potential Energy. This is a thermodynamic parameter that is a combination of the temperature and dew point of the air, and the vertical temperature lapse rates. It is measure in Joules/ Kg and it will tell you whether or not an air parcel will rise, and if so, how powerful will the rising be based off adiabatic cooling. Long story short, Tornado Alley is an area that has both of these parameters line up in high values in conjunction with each other, which results in tornadoes.
4) you severely underestimate Dixie Alley, dude. Dixie has more violent and deadly tornadoes than the traditional tornado alley not only for the reasons that you mentioned in the videos, but also for the fact that shear values are so strong here that our tornadoes usually are moving faster than 50 mph. The high shear values also contribute to how strong they are. Also, favorable dew points are more widespread in Dixie than they are in Tornado alley, and this allows tornadoes to usually be longer track in nature because the supercells have more moisture to pull from.
There are also a number of QLCS tornadoes in Dixie, which can happen even with subpar CAPE values. A QLCS, or Quasi-Linear Convective System, is an intense squall line that can give rise to all modes of severe weather. QLCS tornadoes are typically short lived and occupy the EF0-EF2 end of the spectrum, but they are *VERY* unpredictable and can move up to 80 mph.
That’s about it I guess.

[roberteltze]

I know someone that works at a ball bearing manufacturer in Iowa. He says the thought of a tornado hitting the plant keeps him up at night.

[k.b.tidwell]

I've lived roughly 50 miles north of Birmingham, Alabama my entire life. I'd never leave, especially since my folks are getting on up into their senior years.

But it does get exciting in the Spring and Fall. 🌪🌪🌪

Keeps your prayer life up.😆

[elizabethdavis]

Please consider doing a video on what if Iceland and Greenland became part of the USA the way Seward ( the guy responsible for our purchase of Alaska) wanted to. I also read he was trying to buy parts of Canada

[HarryWHill-GA]

It is a well known fact that the only reason we get tornadoes in the South is that they are attracted to sheet aluminum, specifically that found in trailer parks.

[believeinfaeries]

Great short video! Would have loved to see a brief comparison of strength of tornados in the US compared to those around the world.
Another topic suggestion; Flash Flood Alley, where cool arctic air and hot humid air from the gulf join forces with the orographic effect to create massive flash flooding events.