Tornado Alley | The Tornado Hotspot of the Plains
Tornado Alley stretches across the Great Plains and has most of the tornadoes in the U.S. Here is more about it…
More tornadoes happen in the U.S. than in any other place in the world. 1,200 tornadoes every year. There are two main tornado hotspots in the U.S. Depending on the year, most of them happen in one spot. Tornado Alley. We will talk more about the Tornado Alley facts here…
This post is all about Tornado Alley.
The Infamous Tornado Alley
Where and What is It?
The shape and place of Tornado Alley varies from source to source. People put it in different spots because people think of Tornado Alley in different ways. But there are often states that most sources agree on for Tornado Alley. These states are Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, & Idaho. Air Force meteorologists Major Ernest J. Fawbush & Captain Robert C. Miller first came up with the term “tornado alley” in 1952 in a research project.
Tornado Alley is a portion of the U.S. that has a significant number of tornadoes every year. Some studies have shown that over 1/4 of significant tornadoes happen in this area. It is so active because of its geographical location. The Gulf of Mexico brings warm & moist air to the central parts of the U.S., which is a key ingredient for tornadoes. Then more air masses can come in like the dry air from the Desert Southwest and the cold air from Canada. With the jet stream above, all these ingredients create a great environment for tornadoes. Most of this happens during tornado season which is March-June.
Tornado Alley Season & Activity
As mentioned in the last section, peak tornado alley season is from March through June. According to this data, over half of the average per year occurs within four months. But strong tornadoes can occur year-round and not just during tornado season. For example, December 2021 had 227 tornadoes, very high compared to the 1991-2020 average of 32.
Another topic that is being discussed is “Is Tornado Alley Shifting?” The answer to this is yes. Multiple factors cause this. One of them is the huge drought in the Desert Southwest. The hot air can rise to the mid-levels, and then travel to Tornado Alley. This causes a cap on the atmosphere, causing the less warm air to not rise. Another reason for this is that Dixie Alley, the second main tornado hotspot in the U.S. is getting more favorable conditions. A trend shows that in Tornado Alley, the tornado count is decreasing, and in Dixie Alley, it is increasing. Here is a map showing that…
Three Major Tornado Alley Events
We will cover the Andover, Kansas tornado, the Jarrell, Texas tornado in 1997, & the strongest tornado ever recorded.
1991 The Andover, KS Tornado
The Kansas tornado that would hit Andover formed at 5:49 PM on April 26, 1991. The multiple-vortex tornado would now hit Hayville with F2-F3 damage at 6:16 PM. It was also around 220 yards wide at this point. Then, in the Greenwich Heights Subdivision, well-built homes would be totally leveled at F3-F4 intensity. 10 B1-B bombers were almost hit in the McConnel Air Force Base at around 6:24 PM. As a result of the tornado sirens not working, police officers drove through Golden Spur Mobile Home Park warning residents 10 minutes before the tornado hit. Further down the tornado’s path, it earned its F-5 rating when it swept homes off of their foundations. Almost 100 structures were leveled by the tornado. This tornado was part of 54 other tornadoes in the outbreak & was the last F5 in Kansas.
1997 Jarrell, TX Tornado
Track
This Tornado Alley Texas storm that spawned the Jarrell tornado would also make 3-4 other tornadoes before it made the Jarrell one. The tornado sirens sounded around 10 minutes before the tornado. It would develop on a gust front from its parent storm. At 3:40 PM, people saw the Jarrell tornado with a rope figure. It was also around this time that the tornado had a “Dead Man Walking” appearance. The Dead Man Walking in a Tornado is an old legend that means you are about to die. After moving parallel to the interstate, the tornado intensified & grew to over 1/2 mile wide while changing to darker colors. It then began causing F5 damage, tearing 525 feet of .8-inch thick asphalt from the road. With it now being 3/4 mile wide & having a ground speed of 5-10 mph the tornado entered the Double Creek Subdivision at 3:48 PM.
Aftermath
Not many large items were found after the tornado because of the tornado’s strength. The power of the tornado simply granulated many pieces of debris. All homes of the subdivision, including the well-built ones, were entirely gone with only the foundations left. In some cases, even the foundations were gone! In the fields outside of the subdivision, debris was found miles away, dirt was reduced to mud, and there was ground scouring up to 18 inches deep!
27 people, which is over 20% of the population in Jarrell at the time, died. All members of families died in the tornado, too. The amount of physical trauma was far more extreme than almost any other tornado. The tornado was so intense that even when people did what they were supposed to do for their safety, they still died. Approximately 300 cattle died with their bodies being found up to 1/4 mile away. Forecasters did not anticipate strong tornadoes because there wasn’t a lot of wind shear, which is a key ingredient for tornadoes. The Jarrel tornado was a big part of Texas tornado history.
1999 Bridge Creek-Moore Tornado
The Bridge Creek-Moore F5 would come from a storm that began forming at around 3:20 PM. The storm would become a supercell called storm “A”. Supercell A would drop a small tornado at around 4:51 PM. “A” would drop down eight more tornadoes. One of these was an F3 that was believed to launch an airplane wing from Chickasha all the way to Moore.. It would touch down at 6:23 PM a couple of miles SSW of Amber. It had a wedge structure early on in it’s life. The tornado would get the F5 rating when it struck Bridge Creek. A nearby Doppler weather radar caught winds inside of the tornado at 301 mph. That would make it have the highest windspeed ever recorded.
Track
Many houses, even with anchor bolts, were swept away with only their foundation left. Debris was granulated, trees were debarked, & one inch of asphalt was stripped from a road, too. 12 people died in Bridge Creek. To really emphasize the strength & danger of this tornado, NWS Norman issued the first tornado emergency in history at 6:57 PM. One unique thing about the tornado is that it crossed Interstate 44 twice at F4 intensity from moving parallel to it. It then proceeded to move into Moore.
Multiple residential areas were hit including Country Place Estates, Greenbriar Eastlake Estates, & Emerald Springs apartment, where a two-story apartment was almost entirely leveled. Multiple buildings with gatherings of people had to send them to a safe shelter. These places include Moore City Hall, two sports events, Crossroads Mall, & a ceremony at Westmoore High School. The storm also grounded flights at the Will Rogers World Airport.
Aftermath
There were 36 direct deaths with 5 indirect. 9,451 structures were damaged or destroyed with $1.2 billion in damages. It was the first tornado with over $1 billion in damages as a result of it. The tornado creates an estimated 220 cubic yards of debris, which is equivalent to over 1,000 bathtubs! It was the last F5 in history.
Meteorologists thought about how safe would you be if you were to hide under an overpass for nearly two decades. But people believed it was safe from the footage of a news crew hiding under one in a Kansas tornado. The thing about the video is that the tornado was weak, it was a unique overpass, & it didn’t directly strike it. But in this tornado outbreak, three people died at three different overpasses with a lot of others having life-threatening injuries. As a result of that, the NOAA now states that it is too dangerous and debris is accelerated.
