Tornadoes in History
When a person learns that one is from Kansas, their immediate question that follows usually pertains to tornadoes and a yellow brick road. This is usually due to the influence of popular media. The Midwest to the southern plains of the United States have a fairly steady occurrence of tornadoes every year. This has earned the region the nickname of Tornado Alley.
Although the United States is not the only location where tornadoes occur, it does have the highest reports of them. This is due to a mix of conditions that make this area perfect for a tornado formation. Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom also experience tornadoes. The United States is a long stretch of land in the continent, North America. Cold, dry air is pushed eastward forming a cold front. While from the southwest warm, dry air also blows to the east. On the other side warm, humid air blows from the east forming a warm front. These environments together form the perfect conditions for a tornado (World Atlas). This can be observed on the map below.
Tornadoes are a powerful force not to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, however powerful they are equally unpredictable. This sometimes leaves people with little to no warning as to when a tornado will touch down. However with modern advances in technology, tornadoes have become a topic of study.
In the spring of 1974, there was a major outburst of tornadoes. On April 3rd and 4th within 18 hours, there were 148 tornadoes. More than 50% of them were classified as being significant or strong with a strength of F2 or more (Prociv 2013).
In the spring of 2001, there were 358 tornadoes on April 25th through the 28th (Prociv 2013).
Tornado alley map courtesy of Dan Craggs for NOAA