Berly McCoy
Appearances
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, short wavers, producer Burleigh McCoy in the host chair today. So every couple of years when I was growing up in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, my family and I would gather in our basement, not for a party or game night, but to take cover from a potential tornado. As a kid living around Tornado Alley, I thought this was normal.
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Technically, tornadoes can happen anywhere in the world, and have been recorded on every continent except Antarctica. But even taking into account the cold air from the Rockies and warm air from the Gulf, scientists still wondered why there were so many more tornadoes in Tornado Alley than anywhere else around the globe.
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Especially considering Tornado Alley is very similar to a section of South America, at least geographically.
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Today on the show, new research on why the U.S. gets so many more tornadoes and what the findings might mean for reducing them in the future. You're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Okay, Sushmita, let's talk about the research you reported on. It was done by a scientist named Funing Lee when he was at MIT. And Funing and his colleagues studied tornado occurrence by using this historical data to model and simulate the interaction between land and the atmosphere. Tell me about what they found.
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Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Wow. So it really is like this big picture geographical reason for why there's a different amount of tornadoes in North and South America. Yeah. And so it's really just like if you have flat or you have not flat. That's the big factor. Yeah. And way upstream. Yeah. And upstream being different for North and South America?
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Okay, so is this like coming from the south in the northern hemisphere and coming from the north in this? Yes.
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Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
If you're unfamiliar, Tornado Alley is just a seasonally shifting section of the U.S. that gets a high level of tornadoes. But I later learned that people who live outside of this area don't experience nearly the same amount of tornadoes.
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Okay. And speaking of caveats, this, I mean, this research seems like it's pretty straightforward, pretty solid.
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Okay, so it's like people hadn't thought to look this far upstream. And how far are we talking?
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Wow. So the researchers did this work, solved kind of a big mystery in why Tornado Alley gets so many tornadoes. What could be some implications of their research?
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Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
And then I know climate change is linked to increases in extreme weather, so heavy extreme rainfall, heat, drought. And I read that last year was actually the second most active tornado season in recorded history.
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Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Do scientists expect instances of tornadoes to change as our climate warms?
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Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
That's Sushmina Partak, a freelance science journalist who wrote about the science of tornadoes for the publication EOS. And she says the reason this region has at least 10 times more tornadoes than any other place in the world is clear.
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Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Sushmita, thank you so much for coming on the show to talk to us about tornadoes.
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Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Short Wavers will drop a link to Sushmita's full article in our episode notes. And if you like this episode, please follow us on the podcast platform you're listening on. It really helps our show. This episode was produced by me, Burleigh McCoy, and edited by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez, and by Jeff Brumfield. Tyler Jones checked the facts. And Kweisi Lee was the audio engineer.
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Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
Beth Donovan is our senior director. And Colin Campbell is our senior vice president of podcasting strategy. I'm Burleigh McCoy. Thanks for listening to Shortwave from NPR.
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
So tornadoes form from thunderstorms. And for them to do that, different types of winds need to blow at different temperatures in different directions.
Short Wave
Tornado Alley: Home Of Extreme Winds
These winds moving at vastly different speeds and directions are called wind shear. And they can lead to rotation within the thunderstorm.