Total number of tornadoes, 2000-23
SCROLL
SOURCE: NOAA; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storm Events Database; Associated Press
SCROLL
A shifting Tornado Alley
Over the past four decades, tornado frequency has increased over a large swath of the Midwest and Southeast and decreased in portions of the central and southern Great Plains, a region traditionally associated with Tornado Alley. The Great Plains remain the most active zone for tornadoes in the United States, but the Ohio Valley and Deep South are seeing a faster upward trend.
Upward trend
Downward trend
Still the top area but seeing a downward trend
TX
OK
KS
NE
AL
AK
LA
MO
MS
IA
IL
IN
KY
TN
SOURCE: Victor Gensini, Northern Illinois University
Tornado!
Here’s where tornadoes hit most often, when they strike, and how to survive if one threatens you and your home.
Associated Press
Tornado
Seek the best available area immediately when a Tornado Warning is issued. Your chance of surviving a tornado is excellent if you follow these guidelines.
WATCH
VS.
Tornado
WARNING
Tornadoes are possible.
Be vigilant.
Tornado has been sighted
or detected on radar.
Take cover immediately.
Tornado sheltering guidelines
About the study
WI
FIND ANOTHER OPTION
stay in place until all clear
Worst
options
Bad
options
Good
options
Best
options
Pixabay
Tornado sheltering: Worst options
Leave your mobile home or car and take shelter in a ditch or depression if no storm shelter is available. Never try to outrun a tornado in your car. Leave your car and get away from it.
Mobile homes
Underneath a highway overpass
Vehicles
Tornado sheltering: Bad options
In schools, go to the basement or inner hallways. Avoid cafeterias, gymnasiums or auditoriums. In high-rise buildings, go to interior halls of lower floors, away from windows. Manufactured home residents should flee their homes for sturdier shelter.
Large open rooms like gymnasiums
Manufactured housing
Tornado sheltering: Good options
In homes, avoid windows which can explode during a tornado. Go to the basement. If there is no basement, go to an inner hallway or closet or an interior bathroom on the lowest floor.
Interior room of well-constructed building
Tornado sheltering: Best options
Safe rooms and storm shelters save lives. Installation of a safe room built to FEMA standards, and storm shelter built to ICC 500 standards is the best protective action.
Specifically-designed FEMA Safe Room
Above or below ground Tornado Storm Shelter
About the study
Meteorology professor Victor Gensini of Northern Illinois University and Harold Brooks of NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory tracked the number of tornado reports from 1979 to 2017, while also investigating regional trends in the daily frequency of tornado-environment formation over the same time period, using an index known as the Significant Tornado Parameter (STP). Frequently used for predicting severe weather, the index captures the coexistence of atmospheric ingredients favorable for producing tornadoes. Both the number of actual tornado reports and the historical STP analysis showed the eastward uptick in tornado frequency.
Basement
The deadliest tornado to hit the United States in the last several decades struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011 and killed at least 158 people.
Associated Press photo/Jeff Roberson
SOURCE: NOAA; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storm Events Database; Associated Press
SD
ND
MN
NE
SD
ND
Tornado!
Learn all about this deadly US weather force
Learn all about this deadly US weather force