Check out our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/PBSWeathered?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Weathered Merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/weathered?srsltid=AfmBOoqD_u-BPUDcUpEZyzLnz95hLnizczYPEILsp1PXZM4XadRuxK_M The United States is the tornado capital of the world, but the "Tornado Alley" we all grew up learning about is changing. While frequency is dropping in the Great Plains, a new, much deadlier threat is rising somewhere else... In this episode, we travel to Wingo, Kentucky, to meet a survivor of the deadliest December tornado on record in the US and speak with atmospheric scientists Victor Gensini and Stephen Strader. We explore why America’s unique geography creates these storms, the atmospheric "cap" that is shifting the risk, and why this new "Tornado Alley" is significantly more dangerous than the original. ***** PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateTerra ***** Subscribe to PBS Terra so you never miss an episode! https://bit.ly/3mOfd77 And keep up with PBS Terra on: Facebook: https://facebook.com/pbsdigitalstudios Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pbsterra Instagram: https://instagram.com/pbsterra
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Get you a nocturnal weather friend. I'm that guy for my friends and family. If there's a chance of a particularly bad storm later in the night, I'll stay up for the storm and ring everyone if it gets bad enough.
Saying the house felt like it was breathing is the most terrifying thing and visual things i heard
With the way weather stuff is being funded, I only heard about a tornado touching down near me because I follow a YouTuber who lives streams big events (max velocity). The weather is becoming less predictable, more intense, and we have less people to report on it.
As a tennessean, I feel justified for my intense fear of severe weather now
I’m leaving Missouri, the temp swings 120 degrees annually and the weather tries to bury you. Softball hail destroyed everything locally two days ago.
I can’t think of many things that would be more terrifying than being hit by a huge tornado at night.
Fun fact, learned from my allergen specialist that this air circulation making tornado alley is also why pollen is the worst in the central time zone— so it’s also pollen alley!
As a Kansan, I've been saying this for years! Our weather and seasonal patterns have changed drastically! Tornado Alley has shifted severely Eastward. Also, something else that helps prevent casualties is that we have a robust siren and alert system. It is tested every single week, year-round. We take it very seriously. That alert system has saved a lot of lives, especially when visibility is low.
As a midwesterner, you get a little concerned when air, air pressure, and color of the light suddenly change in the middle of a thunderstorm, even if there is no tornado watch. I'm sorry its moving on to other people/places.
The increase in tornados was really felt in Missouri last year. We’ve always gotten tornados but last year it seemed like every other weekend was a severe storm capable of tornados.
I grew up in Tulsa and am a statistician. I sensed the shift in the early 00s, but when I ran numbers, I didn’t get statistically significant values….it indicated a shift, but confidence was too low to say it was not just short term variance. I repeated the evaluation in 2021 when evaluating impact of COVID shutdown to weather prediction modeling, so since I had the new dataset I looked tornado and it was now much more robust and clearly indicated a shift eastward (and a bit northward).
Wear. A. Helmet. A good chunk of tornado fatalities are from head trauma. A simple bicycle, skating, football, or batting helmet can be the difference between life and death!
Some people in the comments mention really wide tornadoes. That's something I think a lot of folks don't realize - an EF4 or 5 doesn't tend to look like Dorothy's twister, rather they are as if a giant section of the storm is bowed down toward the ground without any clear outline or delineation from the rest of the clouds above and behind them, especially so at night. You can look out across the horizon and it might appear to be a really heavy rainstorm coming, but not necessarily threatening - until it gets closer and all hell breaks loose with winds well over 150+ mph. At which point you're either already in your shelter or you are likely to become a statistic. Nightime EF4s and 5s are unforgiving and relentless killers.
Before a tornado gets to you: Put closed-toe shoes on (preferably boots since you may end up walking on debris), ensure you have a portable light source, a portable radio, a way to receive weather alerts (radio, phone, etc.), and put on a helmet of some kind (hockey, baseball, football, ski, motorcycle, etc.) to keep your head protected.
Kansan here. Education plays a huge part of this. We get tornados in cities here all the time, but we know what to do. We’ve got tornado sirens and know to listen for the emergency alerts. We grow up doing tornado drills and so we know how to take cover safely. A lot of people have weather radios too. If there’s a tornado watch, we keep an eye on the radar. Most of the tornados that come through here are Doppler warned; you don’t need a spotter to have eyes on a tornado to issue a tornado warning. Education is huge! Yeah, tornados are scary, but if you inform yourself and pay attention, you can do a lot to keep yourself safe.
I pointed out the increasing cap to a Meteorologist friend of mine probably a decade or so ago. I used to be a Meteorology student myself, so I'm not exactly a layperson. I also chased storms and regularly checked upper air parameters from sounding balloons. I could see the cap was higher than when I first started chasing storms in the late 90s. Glad to see someone is connecting the dots.
The south also has many more manufactured homes and trees than the plains making an equivalent tornado much more deadly statistically.
I am surprised they didn't once mention NOAA radios for preparing. The radios that prevent the user from turning off the loud notification for tornado warnings or watches. We have one and while it can be annoying at times, I am grateful it lets us know and we can hear it anywhere in the house.
It’s getting insane here in Illinois. We’ve had the most tornadoes than any other state this year. Over 100 tornadoes so far
Ryan Hall has a phone notification system now. Definitely worth looking into. My friends now live in Nashville. She had a tornado rip through one street over the first year she was there. Every year since has had multiple tornado warnings. She’s so done.