We now live in a particularly prone area of N Alabama and it’s pretty clear from the history here (’74, ‘11, ‘14, etc)that living next to a mountain can help a lot but it’s not 100%.
Apparently bodies of water can have an effect too. There’s a lake maybe a half mile west of me and tornados seem to bounce over it. The one that came through April 2011 went directly over the house, low enough to twist the tops of a few trees, and touched down again about a half mile east. The one that came through Nov. 2016 went across the back of the farm, touching down again less than a mile east. One came through last spring, passing over the farm across the road, touching down again about a quarter mile east.
We had damage at the farm from the straight line winds being sucked into the vortex but it would have been a lot worse had the funnels been on the ground.
I’ve thanked my lucky stars all three times and hope the luck holds out! LOL
14 yrs. later a tornado did get down into the little town near us in 1988 and wreaked havoc. Fortunately it hit at night and there were very few people in the downtown area. It killed one woman and severely injured her son and there were a few other injuries, but lots of buildings destroyed.
We found parts of airport hangers on our property in the mountains where the tornado had lifted and weakened and started dropping objects.