Why are there so few tornadoes in the state of Nevada?
Three main reasons: 1. The heat and dryness that rises off of Nevada’s surface tends to destroy most precipition and push any cooler weather systems eastward. It’s like a resistant bubble of extremely hot air rising upward. 2. The orographic/mountainous landscape ruins any ability of cold and dry air masses to mate with warm and wet air masses at high altitudes. The land simply fragments the intermixing of the two systems which are necessary for tornadoes. 3. Nevada is a bit too far west to pick up the Gulf of Mexico upper-atmospheric moisture that fuels most tornadoes/mesocyclones/super-t hunderstorm complexes. Texas and Oklahoma are the nurseries for this, which is why we see so many superstorms there. Colorado, similarly does not get many tornadoes, but the flat states, Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, North/Central Texas, are ‘juicy’ tornado areas because the heat is strong and rises straight up without any orographic fragmenting, meeting with wet Gulf air masses.
