Climate Change Could be Shifting Tornado Alley, according to Researchers

Climate researchers believe rising global temperatures have shifted the center of tornadoes in the U.S., from the traditional Great Plains region more towards the Southeast, centered around Alabama. To be sure, the link between climate change and tornado formation is a topic for debate but increasing temperatures does create more favorable conditions for intense thunderstorms to form and thus increase the likelihood of tornadoes. Indeed, multiple studies have shown tornadoes will likely get more frequent, more intense, and come in swarms.

Luckily, scientists are getting better at forecasting areas where tornadoes may develop. Accordingly, recent studies have demonstrated a statistical shift in tornado activity moving from the Great Plains region, centered around Oklahoma, to the Southeast, centered around Alabama. One study found a significant decrease in both the total number of tornadoes and days with tornadoes in the Great Plains, the traditional Tornado Alley. And the study found an increase in tornado numbers extending from Mississippi through Tennessee and Kentucky into southern Indiana, an area that been termed Dixie Alley. Some research suggests this shift could be due an eastward shift of the dry line separating the wetter Eastern U.S. and the drier Western U.S.; the dry line is typically a boundary where warm air rises and cold air sinks, helping fuel thunderstorms. Read more at the Conversation.