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Why The United States Gets So Many Powerful Tornadoes
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Mar 31, 2025
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.
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Tornadoes are one of the world's most fascinating natural phenomena
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The perfect combination of weather events combines to create a literal spiral of wind and rain that connects the ground to the sky
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But while every state gets tornadoes to some degree, specific ones get them far more often
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Here's why the United States gets so many tornadoes in a very specific region called Tornado Alley
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Welcome to Geography by Jeff. Today, we're going to talk about tornadoes, the twisting, twirling, whirling weather phenomenon
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that has fascinated civilizations for centuries. But while tornadoes are fascinating all by themselves, what's perhaps more interesting
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to me is that they occur specifically within a region of the United States at far higher
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degree of frequency than almost anywhere else in the world. And we're going to explore why that is in today's video
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But first, before we get to today's episode, if you enjoy this channel, be sure to check
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out the podcast that I co-host with geography professor Hunter Shobie. Each week, Hunter and I take a look at a huge what-if question and look at it through the lens of geography
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New episodes premiere every Wednesday, and you can listen right here on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
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Tornadoes are not as unique as they might first appear. Every single continent, aside from Antarctica, has had a tornado hit somewhere within it to some degree of strength within the last year
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But that's not to say that all tornadoes are created equally. or that all places get the same frequency of tornadoes
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Across the planet, there are roughly seven places where tornadoes happen most frequently
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In Australia, mostly along the eastern coast, but sometimes along the west coast
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In East Asia, primarily in the Philippines, Japan, and China around Beijing
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In Eastern India and Bangladesh. In Southern Africa, within South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini
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Broadly all over Europe, including Ireland and the United Kingdom. In South America, around Buenos Aires area of Argentina and Uruguay, and of course, the United States and Canada, basically everywhere, as well as northern Mexico
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But while tornadoes are not uncommon in many parts of the world the United States in particular stands out as being the country that gets the most tornadoes every year at a power that most other regions of the world rarely experience
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But even within the United States, tornadoes are not distributed equally. Every single state in the US
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including Puerto Rico and Washington DC, has had a tornado touch ground at some point
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between 1950 and 2021. And overall, during that time, over 67,000 tornadoes have hit the US
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That would translate to roughly 965 tornadoes hitting every single year. If we take only the last 20 years, that number increases to about 1,230 tornadoes every year
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To put this number in perspective, Europe, which has a similar land area size
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experiences about 700 tornadoes each year. That's still quite a lot of tornadoes, but the power of Europe's tornadoes is much lower
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Tornadoes are broken out on a scale of F0 to F6. This scale is used to determine the amount of damage any given tornado would be able to cause
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So a tornado at a scale of F0 would have a wind speed of less than 72 mph
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and would be expected to cause light damage. Maybe some small trees blown down, but not much else
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And from there it starts to ramp up. An F1 tornado would have wind speeds between 73 and 112 mph
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and be expected to cause moderate damage. An F2 would have winds between 113 and 157 miles per hour and cause significant damage
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An F3 would be between 158 and 206 miles per hour and cause significant damage
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An F4 between 207 and 260 miles per hour and would cause devastating damage
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An F5 between 261 and 318 miles per hour and cause incredible damage
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And finally, an F6 would have wind speeds greater than 318 miles per hour
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and cause inconceivable damage. There have been no recorded F6 tornadoes anywhere in the modern history of tornadoes
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But there have been 67 F5 tornadoes recorded, of which 59 hit within the United States
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And there's a reason for that. Tornadoes are an incredibly scary phenomenon
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Even a relatively light tornado can be very damaging. And unfortunately for one area of the United States tornadoes are far too often an occurrence But before we get into why the US has so many tornadoes if you enjoying this video hit that subscribe button
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More fun geography videos are just a single click away. When we talk about the US getting a lot of tornadoes
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we're not really talking about the United States as a whole. Really, we're talking about a very specific region
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called Tornado Alley. This is an area that largely encompasses the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota, though the nickname is
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fairly nebulous and can incorporate more or less depending on who you ask. Regardless, these six
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states have received 37% of all recorded tornadoes within the United States. And this is due to a
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unique set of geographic circumstances that this region in particular has. You see, a tornado forms
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out of large thunderstorms. And inside those storms, warm, humid air rises while cool air falls
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along with rain or hail. These conditions cause air currents to begin to spin around rapidly inside the cloud
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From there, the spinning air currents can drop to the ground in the form of a tornado
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And this region happens to get just the right ingredients to make this exact kind of storm happen often
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Tornado Alley exists at the confluence of three geographic weather systems. Coming in from the north is a front of cold dry air from Canada
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From the southwest is a gust of hot dry air from the Mojave Desert. And from the southeast is a heavy dose of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico
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As these three combine, they create the exact circumstances that a tornado needs
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And none of this would be possible were it not for the Rocky Mountains, Mojave Desert, and Gulf of Mexico being in the exact geographic positions as they are
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No other region in the world has all three required ingredients to make a tornado as prominently as the United States
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But while this region gets a lot of tornadoes, As it turns out, it's actually one of the safer areas
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to live in with respects to regions with a high amount of tornado activity
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Texas, for example, has approximately one third the average annual amount of deaths caused by tornadoes
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than Alabama, despite Texas having many more tornadoes per year. It at this point that you might be thinking if Tornado Alley gets the most tornadoes overall then why does a state relatively far away have the deadliest record when it comes to tornadoes
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Luckily, there's a geographic answer to this question as well. You see, Alabama and Mississippi
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still get quite a lot of tornadoes. Overall, these two states get about 7
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of all tornadoes in the country. Not a huge amount necessarily, but still significant
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They experience these storms for largely the same reasons as Tornado Alley
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but less frequently. This is because the cold northern air from Canada
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does not reach as far south as often. But when a tornado does hit these two states
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things get a little bit dicey. You see, there are three primary reasons why Alabama specifically has a much higher fatality rate
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when it comes to tornadoes. The first is that, as it turns out, most tornadoes that hit the southeast
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tend to be nocturnal tornadoes. This is because tornadoes tend to strike the southeast
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in the early springtime when there are fewer hours in the day. When a tornado hits at night, people tend to be less active, less aware, or even sleeping
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and this creates issues when you need to get people into shelter quickly. The second reason is, quite simply, that the Southeast has more built up than the Great Plains states
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As I covered in a previous video, there are relatively few people living in a large part of Tornado Alley
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In Mississippi and Alabama, however, far more development exists, which means when a tornado does hit those states
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It's far more likely to hit an actual town or city than in the Great Plains
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Finally, and similarly to the last reason, the natural geography of the southeast also creates more hazards
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for when a tornado does inevitably hit. Alabama and Mississippi have more trees with which to throw around and cause more damage
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And rolling hills are able to hide oncoming tornadoes in a way that they can't in the Great Plains
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All of this combines to create an area that has fewer tornadoes, but with a far deadlier record than Tornado Alley
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Tornadoes are truly an amazing spectacle. The raw power they emit make them one of Earth's most amazing geographic phenomenon
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But while they're amazing to behold, they can also be incredibly destructive. And unfortunately for some parts of the country, they'll always have to deal with them
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I hope you enjoyed learning more about Tornado Alley in the United States. If you did, please subscribe to my channel
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And if you want to watch more of my videos, you can do so here. Thanks for watching. See you next time
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