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Is Kirksville Missouri in Tornado Alley?
Tornadoes are capable of producing some of the most violent winds possible on
planet earth. The most frequent area of the US for these twisting terrors from
the sky has become known as tornado alley. From historical data taken over many
years, one large area has been drawn over US maps to make a visual
representation of this data.
Here is one such map taken from:
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/tornado/tor_climatology.html
 Unfortunately,
some people have concluded from tornado alley maps that if they live outside of
that area known as tornado alley, that they have little chance of being hit by
one of these killer storms.
Missouri is not on most of these tornado alley maps, but as a storm
chaser, I have included part of Missouri in tornado alley. Tornado alley maps
have been created with specific data sets in mind that the map creators want to
represent. These data sets have certain limiting factors built into them that
limited what data would be allowed to affect the area drawn on the map.
These data sets do not represent
short term climate changes or weather abnormalities very well, since they are
based on long term averages. Although places like Missouri and Tennessee may not
fit into the averages of some map makers who do not include them in their tornado
alley maps, history shows states such as Missouri and Tennessee do produce
violent killer tornadoes and deserve our attention.
| Situated within the US between the warm moist southern states and
the cooler northern states, Missouri is prime territory for conflicting
air masses to collide creating the potential for tornadoes. To make some
of these events even worse, all that is needed is to add some powerful
upper level winds and the ingredients are ripe for a disaster.
These collisions of differing air temperatures, dew points and wind
directions can and do happen all over the US, during all seasons of the
year, but Missouri has had more than its fair share of deadly tornadoes
over the years. So regardless what time of year, or if it is in Oklahoma
or Missouri, when all the ingredients are present for creating a
tornado, catastrophic weather is possible anywhere at anytime. |
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So no matter where we live, we should all have a good severe weather
action plan in place in the event we find ourselves in a tornado warning. It is
all about preparing to commune within the climate we live. Nature produces
violent weather without remorse and can be deadly for the unprepared. Make storm
preparation part of your environmental plan because inevitably storms will come,
even if you do not live in Tornado Alley. The 2009 Kirksville Missouri
tornado is just one recent example of how tornado alley maps do not represent
what will happen on any given day. With the loss of life from both the Novinger
tornado and the Kirksville Missouri tornado people in Missouri will not soon
forget that tornadoes can happen anywhere in the US.
Tornado Tim (Tim Baker)
Tornado Safety Information
here
Storm
Chasers should always follow the "Chaser Code"
An excellent resource on current severe weather potential is:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/
How to build a safe room:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/pdf/building_safe_room.pdf
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