Tornado Alley• Tornado Alley is a name given to a stretch of the interior plains

between Texas and Iowa. The United States is hit by more tornadoes that any other country. Though tornadoes can strike anywhere in the United States, most of them form within this area. These storms can be incredibly destructive. For example, a series of tornadoes in 1999 killed 46 people and destroyed thousands of buildings in Oklahoma and Kansas.

• The storms of Tornado Alley are formed when moisture from the Gulf of Mexico is carried by prevailing winds to the plains. The point where this moist air meets the dry air from the Rockies is called a dryline. As the drying line is forced eastward by strong winds from the southwest, the Gulf air is forced upwards. This rising air sometimes twists into a supercell, or rotating thunderstorm. Most tornadoes develop from these storms.

• Where is “Tornado Alley?”• Why to tornadoes hit in “Tornado Alley?”• Does anyone have any personal/family experience with a

tornado?

Tornado Alley

“We’re not in Kansas anymore…”

April 9th, 1999Cincinnati Ohio

5 People died in the tornadoDestroyed my best friend Shaun’s house