Posted on 05/24/2025 3:55:03 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
In a new study, researchers at Purdue University have harnessed the power of advanced computer modeling to unravel the complex reasons why the United States has more tornado activity than any other region in the world.
The study, spearheaded by Dr. Dan Chavas, an associate professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, delves into the geographical and climatic factors that make America the country with the strongest, most violent, and numerous tornadoes worldwide...
The United States averages over 1,200 tornadoes every year, a staggering figure that surpasses the total annual twisters of all European countries combined. The country that ranks second, Canada, only averages 100 tornadoes per year.
This prevalence of tornadoes in America has long been assumed to be due to its unique geography, which provides ideal conditions for tornadoes to form...
For decades, meteorologists have hypothesized that the Gulf of Mexico plays a crucial role in forming tornadoes in the United States. The warm, moist air from the Gulf is thought to collide with cooler, drier air crossing over the Rocky Mountains in the west Rockies to create the perfect conditions for severe weather.
Dr. Chavas' team tested this theory using computer models to simulate what would happen if the Gulf of Mexico were replaced with land.
Surprisingly, they found that while the absence of the Gulf shifted the location of severe storms eastward, from the central Great Plains into Illinois, it did not significantly reduce their frequency or intensity.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedebrief.org ...
Oklahoma is in the bullseye tonight…
I miss Gary England!!
There ya go. Gotta be smarter than the average bear.
Geography.
This is nothing new. This has been known for YEARS.
No, it hasn’t. This is new.
What if it turns out that this prevalence of tornadoes in America is due to its unique geography, which provides ideal conditions for tornadoes to form?
The “clues” are called the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico.
Comedian was James Gregory. From Georgia I think.
I watch his stuff on youtube.
My guess without reading the article: air currents from off the Pacific Gyre south from Alaska meet those from off the Gulf of America somewhere over Kansas. And it’s flat.
We’ll see how I did.
Buffalo has so much snow in the winter because the cold Celsius weather from Canada comes down and hits the warm Fahrenheit weather in the US.
Very impressive. I really couldn’t recall it.
I know! I know! It is because the Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves.
Many years ago, I was driving up highway 87 toward Lubbock.
Saw a tornado heading at my path at a 90 degree angle. I stopped my truck and got down inside a bar ditch. The tornado turned my truck around 180 degrees. I had an empty styrofoam cup in the bed. It was still there. Got loud as hell for a while then very quiet.
"In contrast, the smoother surface of the Gulf of Mexico allows for greater wind shear, a critical component for tornado development."
Yes. When you can produce an LLJ +40 knots and have the appropriate SRH + CAPE.
Now add in the 'smoothness' left-hand of the Mississippi, which permits CAPE to flow freely on said LLJ to Iowa and beyond, and the Corolis effect + deepening surface low will often bend that CAPE poleward and eastward. Tornado outbreak if the right time of year and convective temps met and erode the cap...
Not even the Bangladesh hot pocket can compete, but they have had some wild ones, including maybe the recorded-history Grim Reaper.
It may also have something to do with having more monitoring stations and detection devices than BFE and other such countries.
Many years ago my father was driving down a highway in North Dakota when he saw a tornado coming towards him following the road. He was able to get to a cross road and get out of the path of the tornado just in time...or I wouldn’t be here (it was before he met my mother).
First off, computer models are only as good as those programing them and the data entered.
Second, tropical air is never saturated so even removing the Gulf doesn't remove the warm, moisture laden air.
And geography is important and that is NOT new. Being as flat as the middle of the country is, allows for free mixing of cold dry air from Canada and warm moist air from the south.
And the flatness ODES play a role. Parts of Central NY are tornado prone as the area especially south of Oneida Lake is FLAT. And several tornadoes have hit the Rome area and areas east of it. Happens every few years.
I concur.
It’s all those trailor courts.
Latitude. Attitude, humidity and storm fronts.
Dry, east-west flat plains of that length at low altitudes at that latitude occur nowhere else in the universe. The tornado belt, if one occurred in Europe, would be south of the north coast of the Sahara Desert. In Asia, across the Himalayan Mountains.
And there simply is no such large mass of lands in the Southern Hemisphere at that latitude.
Uh-huh. Whatever you say.
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