Why does “Tornado Alley” have so many tornadoes?
The idea of “Tornado Alley” is not a scientific one … it’s something that has been created by the media. However, it is certainly true that tornado frequency varies around the United States (and, indeed, around the world). Some places have pretty high tornado frequencies compared to the rest of the world and it’s inevitable that someone wants to call such locations by the term “Tornado Alley.” However, at face value, this question is pretty difficult to answer. If we don’t understand tornado formation completely (and we don’t) then we couldn’t possibly explain why some regions have a higher frequency of tornadoes than others. Nevertheless, I can say this much: the unique geography of the plains east of the Rockies make it a region with high tornado frequency during early and middle spring. In late winter and early spring, tornadoes also occur with relatively high frequency in the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Although it is simplistic to use the notion of the “clash of air mas
