Latest news with #TornadoAlley
Newsweek
10-07-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
Map Shows Rising Home Insurance Costs Across 50 States
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The cost of home insurance spiked all across the country over the past six years, according to a new analysis by LendingTree, with no state spared of premium hikes. Between 2019 and 2024, the cost of home insurance increased by a cumulative 40.4 percent, the company found, with the biggest increases concentrated in the past two to three years. From 2019 through 2021, rates were inching up at a relatively slow pace, with 2021 seeing the biggest jump at 3 percent. From then on, the surge of home insurance rates across the country accelerated significantly. In 2022, rates jumped by 5.4 percent; in 2023, by 11 percent; and in 2024, by 11.4 percent—the highest increase reported in that five-year timeframe. West Leads For Biggest Rate Hikes The national level rates have risen by an average 40.4 percent and the state that has faced the steepest increase—Colorado—reported a hike nearly twice as high, at 76.6 percent. It was followed by Nebraska (72.3 percent) and Utah (70.6 percent). Natural disasters have become more frequent and more severe in these states in recent years, increasing catastrophe exposure for insurers—the potential financial losses resulting from catastrophic events—and bringing up the cost of rebuilding at a time when the construction market is facing rising costs overall and a widespread labor shortage. Colorado homeowners face the growing threat of wildfires, hailstorms, wind and snowstorms. Nebraskans living in so-called "Tornado Alley" are particularly vulnerable to suffer property damage during storm season. And in Utah, global warming is making storms and wildfires more dangerous than ever. "Insurance companies have been raising their rates to keep up with their escalating expenses," LendingTree home insurance expert and licensed insurance agent Rob Bhatt said in the report. "The early 2020s saw an uptick in natural disasters and inflation. Insurance companies have had to rebuild more homes than normal, and the cost of rebuilding each one has become more expensive." Between 2020 and 2024, according to data by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Colorado reported 22 billion-dollar disasters estimated to have caused losses between $10 billion and $20 billion. The same numbers were reported by Nebraska in the same timeframe, while Utah faced 5 million-dollar disasters costing an estimated $250 million to $500 million. 2024: Bad Year For Insurers In 2024 alone, Montana and Nebraska were the states facing the highest home insurance rate hikes in the country, both at 22.1 percent. They were followed by Washington at 19.5 percent. Some of the states that have taken the brunt of the country's home insurance crisis, on the other hand, reported the smallest increases in the country. In Florida, rates went up by 1.7 percent in 2024 and in Texas 3.4 percent. That is probably because, in these two states, insurers have already significantly increased their rates or dropped out of the most at-risk areas to avoid higher costs. In other words, they were more prepared for what was coming—hurricanes, storms and flooding—than insurers in less vulnerable states might have been. "Home insurance companies had significant expenses in 2023," Bhatt said. "In seven states, they paid out more in claims than they earned in premiums. Like companies in other industries, they need to earn more than they spend to remain solvent. Unfortunately, they often have to raise their rates to accomplish this goal." Rates Are High—And Likely To Continue Rising Homeownership has become more expensive in recent years for Americans, as prices skyrocketed during the pandemic homebuying frenzy and mortgage rates have hovered around the 7 percent mark for the past three years. Rising home insurance rates are coming on top of these existing challenges, putting an additional burden on homeowners. As of 2025, the average cost of home insurance in the country is $2,801 per year, according to LendingTree. In every state, however, homeowners pay a different rate. Oklahomans currently pay the highest home insurance rates in the country, at $6,133 per year—more than double the national average—followed by Nebraskans ($5,912) and Kansans ($5,412). "For new homebuyers, rising home insurance costs can reduce the amount they can borrow, which, in turn, can make it more difficult to find an affordable home," Bhatt said. "If you already own your home, rising insurance costs cut into your budget for other household essentials." Several experts expect the cost of home insurance to continue rising this year as President Donald Trump's tariffs on U.S. trading partners increase the cost of crucial material used to rebuild homes damaged by natural disasters. Insurify expects rates to jump by 11 percent across the country by the end of the year.
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Severe weather hits the US hard as key forecast offices reel from Trump cuts
A brutal stretch of severe weather has taxed communities on the eastern fringes of tornado alley this spring and early summer, while harsh staffing cuts and budget restrictions have forced federal meteorologists to attempt to forecast the carnage with less data. As of 30 June, there have already been more than 1,200 tornadoes nationwide. More than 60 people have died due to this year's tornadoes, most of which have centered on the Mississippi River valley – about 500 miles east of the traditional heart of 'tornado alley' of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. That unusual eastward shift may also be making tornado outbreaks more dangerous, bringing them in closer proximity to more people than the relatively sparsely populated plains states. Related: Week of sweltering US heat – is this the new normal in a warming world? In addition to the tornadoes, it's also been a burdensome year for flash flooding. On 14 June, more than three inches of rain fell in just half an hour in West Virginia, washing away a young boy and prompting frantic emergency rescues across two counties in the northern part of the state. According to National Weather Service statistics, rainfall that intense could only be expected to happen about once every thousand years in a stable climate. As the weather has worsened, there have been fewer federal scientists to alert the public of it. Cuts to the weather service by Trump and the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) have left NWS local forecast offices critically understaffed throughout this year's heightened severe weather. In April, an internal document reportedly described how cuts could create a situation of 'degraded' operations – shutting down core services one by one until it reaches an equilibrium that doesn't overtax its remaining employees. The changing climate is also making simultaneous weather disasters more likely, such as overlapping tornadoes and flash floods – creating emergency preparedness difficulties and compounding the effects of funding cuts. Deadly storms earlier this spring in Kentucky and Missouri featured torrential rains during an ongoing tornado outbreak, a nightmare scenario that demands close attention by emergency managers to avoid people seeking shelter in flood zones. At the NWS office in Jackson, Kentucky, however, a staffing shortage meant there was no on-duty forecaster for the overnight shift when the storms were at their peak. This year marks the first time that local NWS forecast offices have stopped round-the-clock operations in the agency's modern history. Now, additional meteorologists are being remanded from research roles – where they would normally be working to improve techniques and make advances for future years – into the forecasting frontlines in an attempt to fill the staffing gaps. 'The world's example for weather services is being destroyed,' wrote Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin, on social media earlier this spring after a round of major changes were announced. In May, the main computer system that distributes NWS weather alerts to local partners for emergency broadcast suffered a lengthy outage. By the time the system was back online hours later, at least one flash flood warning, near Albuquerque, New Mexico and at least one tornado warning, near Columbia, South Carolina, never made it to the public. The decision to collect a bedrock source of data for forecasters – weather balloons – has been deferred to local offices, essentially making twice-daily launches optional for understaffed forecast centers. In June, offices that missed balloon launches serve New York City, Atlanta, Portland, and more than 10 sites in the midwest. Of the 91 launch sites, just over 70 sites were consistently launching balloons during peak tornado season in May – a loss of one-quarter of this critical data source. First used in 1896, weather balloon launches are still the single-most important type of data that meteorologists use. Weather balloons are the only way meteorologists have of taking direct measurements of air pressure, winds, temperature and humidity throughout the atmosphere simultaneously at about 1,000 locations across the world – this data forms the basis for all computer-derived weather forecasts that appear on weather apps. Since upper atmospheric winds generally blow from west to east in the US, the persistent data loss has tended to affect weather forecasts in the eastern half of the country the most – exactly where tornadoes are happening more frequently. The entire process to launch a weather balloon takes an NWS employee about three hours. Since the balloon launches are time-consuming and difficult to automate, they are being phased out at NWS offices with staffing shortages – even though they collect essential data. 'At the expense of weather balloons, we would rather focus our energy on looking at other data that will allow us to be able to give you the advance prediction that a tornado will occur,' Suzanne Fortin, meteorologist in charge at the Omaha NWS said in a March press conference shortly after the cuts were announced. 'That's the reason we're suspending, so we can focus on those life-saving warnings that can keep people safe.' In May, every living former director of the NWS signed on to an open letter with a warning that, if continued, Trump's cuts to federal weather forecasting would create 'needless loss of life'. Despite bipartisan congressional pushback for a restoration in staffing and funding to the NWS, sharp budget cuts remain on pace in projections for the 2026 budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent organization of the NWS. On Monday, in its annual budget request to Congress, Noaa proposed a slight budget increase for the NWS for fiscal year 2026 while maintaining deep cuts to its research budget that provides tools to forecasters. 'Noaa leadership is taking steps to address those who took a voluntary early retirement option,' Erica Grow Cei, an NWS spokesperson, said in a statement to the Guardian when asked about staffing. 'NWS continues to conduct short-term Temporary Duty assignments (TDYs), and is in the process of conducting a series of Reassignment Opportunity Notices (RONs) to fill roles at NWS field locations with the greatest operational need. 'Additionally, a targeted number of permanent, mission-critical field positions will soon be advertised under an exception to the Department-wide hiring freeze to further stabilize frontline operations.' In a 5 June hearing on Capitol Hill, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, whose role includes overseeing Noaa, and by extension the NWS, defended the administration's approach, claiming agencies were 'full staffed' and were 'transforming how we track storms and forecast weather with cutting-edge technology'. 'Under no circumstances am I going to let public safety or public forecasting be touched,' he said. Studies over the past decade have shown that global heating may be acting to both intensify tornado outbreaks and shift the tornado season eastward and earlier in the year. Warmer air can also hold more water vapor, making extreme rains even more intense. Five of the past six seasons have had a higher-than-average death toll. This year's tornado season is the second-busiest on record, and last year's was the third-busiest. Weather experts generally agree that this surge in tornado activity is due in part to unusually warm temperatures over the Gulf of Mexico that have helped supply the eastern US with the necessary ingredients for tornado formation. At the same time, new studies suggest that unusual summertime warming is concentrating activity into fewer days. The NWS anticipated some of these changes and had been planning to consolidate and modernize its forecast systems to be more responsive to complex weather emergencies. But what was supposed to be a multi-year transition to a 'mutual aid' concept has instead taken place haphazardly over the past several weeks. According to climate scientists and public safety experts, all of this adds up to more deaths in disasters. As peak hurricane season approaches, this is a big concern. Eric Holthaus is a meteorologist and climate journalist based in Minnesota
The Guardian
01-07-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Severe weather hits the US hard as key forecast offices reel from Trump cuts
A brutal stretch of severe weather has taxed communities on the eastern fringes of tornado alley this spring and early summer, while harsh staffing cuts and budget restrictions have forced federal meteorologists to attempt to forecast the carnage with less data. As of 30 June, there have already been more than 1,200 tornadoes nationwide. More than 60 people have died due to this year's tornadoes, most of which have centered on the Mississippi River valley – about 500 miles east of the traditional heart of 'tornado alley' of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. That unusual eastward shift may also be making tornado outbreaks more dangerous, bringing them in closer proximity to more people than the relatively sparsely populated plains states. In addition to the tornadoes, it's also been a burdensome year for flash flooding. On 14 June, more than three inches of rain fell in just half an hour in West Virginia, washing away a young boy and prompting frantic emergency rescues across two counties in the northern part of the state. According to National Weather Service statistics, rainfall that intense could only be expected to happen about once every thousand years in a stable climate. As the weather has worsened, there have been fewer federal scientists to alert the public of it. Cuts to the weather service by Trump and the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) have left NWS local forecast offices critically understaffed throughout this year's heightened severe weather. In April, an internal document reportedly described how cuts could create a situation of 'degraded' operations – shutting down core services one by one until it reaches an equilibrium that doesn't overtax its remaining employees. The changing climate is also making simultaneous weather disasters more likely, such as overlapping tornadoes and flash floods – creating emergency preparedness difficulties and compounding the effects of funding cuts. Deadly storms earlier this spring in Kentucky and Missouri featured torrential rains during an ongoing tornado outbreak, a nightmare scenario that demands close attention by emergency managers to avoid people seeking shelter in flood zones. At the NWS office in Jackson, Kentucky, however, a staffing shortage meant there was no on-duty forecaster for the overnight shift when the storms were at their peak. This year marks the first time that local NWS forecast offices have stopped round-the-clock operations in the agency's modern history. Now, additional meteorologists are being remanded from research roles – where they'd normally be working to improve techniques and make advances for future years – into the forecasting frontlines in an attempt to fill the staffing gaps. 'The world's example for weather services is being destroyed,' wrote Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin, on social media earlier this spring after a round of major changes were announced. In May, the main computer system that distributes NWS weather alerts to local partners for emergency broadcast suffered a lengthy outage. By the time the system was back online hours later, at least one flash flood warning, near Albuquerque, New Mexico and at least one tornado warning, near Columbia, South Carolina, never made it to the public. The decision to collect a bedrock source of data for forecasters – weather balloons – has been deferred to local offices, essentially making twice-daily launches optional for understaffed forecast centers. In June, offices that missed balloon launches serve New York City, Atlanta, Portland, and more than 10 sites in the midwest. Of the 91 launch sites, just over 70 sites were consistently launching balloons during peak tornado season in May – a loss of one-quarter of this critical data source. First used in 1896, weather balloon launches are still the single-most important type of data that meteorologists use. Weather balloons are the only way meteorologists have of taking direct measurements of air pressure, winds, temperature, and humidity throughout the atmosphere simultaneously at about 1,000 locations across the world – this data forms the basis for all computer-derived weather forecasts that appear on weather apps. Since upper atmospheric winds generally blow from west to east in the US, the persistent data loss has tended to affect weather forecasts in the eastern half of the country the most – exactly where tornadoes are happening more frequently. The entire process to launch a weather balloon takes a NWS employee about three hours. Since the balloon launches are time-consuming and difficult to automate, they're being phased out at NWS offices with staffing shortages – even though they collect essential data. 'At the expense of weather balloons, we would rather focus our energy on looking at other data that will allow us to be able to give you the advance prediction that a tornado will occur,' Suzanne Fortin, meteorologist in charge at the Omaha NWS said in a March press conference shortly after the cuts were announced. 'That's the reason we're suspending, so we can focus on those life-saving warnings that can keep people safe.' In May, every living former director of the NWS signed on to an open letter with a warning that, if continued, Trump's cuts to federal weather forecasting would create 'needless loss of life'. Despite bipartisan congressional pushback for a restoration in staffing and funding to the NWS, sharp budget cuts remain on pace in projections for the 2026 budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent organization of the NWS. On Monday, in its annual budget request to Congress, Noaa proposed a slight budget increase for the NWS for fiscal year 2026 while maintaining deep cuts to its research budget that provides tools to forecasters. 'Noaa leadership is taking steps to address those who took a voluntary early retirement option,' Erica Grow Cei, an NWS spokesperson, said in a statement to the Guardian when asked about staffing. 'NWS continues to conduct short-term Temporary Duty assignments (TDYs), and is in the process of conducting a series of Reassignment Opportunity Notices (RONs) to fill roles at NWS field locations with the greatest operational need. 'Additionally, a targeted number of permanent, mission-critical field positions will soon be advertised under an exception to the Department-wide hiring freeze to further stabilize frontline operations.' In a 5 June hearing on Capitol Hill, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, whose role includes overseeing Noaa, and by extension the NWS, defended the administration's approach claiming agencies were 'full staffed' and were 'transforming how we track storms and forecast weather with cutting-edge technology'. 'Under no circumstances am I going to let public safety or public forecasting be touched,' he said. . Studies over the past decade have shown that global heating may be acting to both intensify tornado outbreaks and shift the tornado season eastward and earlier in the year. Warmer air can also hold more water vapor, making extreme rains even more intense. Five of the past six seasons have had a higher-than-average death toll. This year's tornado season is the second-busiest on record, and last year's was the third-busiest. Weather experts generally agree that this surge in tornado activity is due in part to unusually warm temperatures over the Gulf of Mexico that have helped supply the eastern US with the necessary ingredients for tornado formation. At the same time, new studies suggest that unusual summertime warming is concentrating activity into fewer days. The NWS anticipated some of these changes and had been planning to consolidate and modernize its forecast systems to be more responsive to complex weather emergencies. But what was supposed to be a multi-year transition to a 'mutual aid' concept has instead taken place haphazardly over the past several weeks. According to climate scientists and public safety experts, all of this adds up to more deaths in disasters. As peak hurricane season approaches, this is a big concern. Eric Holthaus is a meteorologist and climate journalist based in Minnesota
The Guardian
01-07-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Severe weather hits the US hard as key forecast offices reel from Trump cuts
A brutal stretch of severe weather has taxed communities on the eastern fringes of tornado alley this spring and early summer, while harsh staffing cuts and budget restrictions have forced federal meteorologists to attempt to forecast the carnage with less data. As of 30 June, there have already been more than 1,200 tornadoes nationwide. More than 60 people have died due to this year's tornadoes, most of which have centered on the Mississippi River valley – about 500 miles east of the traditional heart of 'tornado alley' of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. That unusual eastward shift may also be making tornado outbreaks more dangerous, bringing them in closer proximity to more people than the relatively sparsely populated plains states. In addition to the tornadoes, it's also been a burdensome year for flash flooding. On 14 June, more than three inches of rain fell in just half an hour in West Virginia, washing away a young boy and prompting frantic emergency rescues across two counties in the northern part of the state. According to National Weather Service statistics, rainfall that intense could only be expected to happen about once every thousand years in a stable climate. As the weather has worsened, there have been fewer federal scientists to alert the public of it. Cuts to the weather service by Trump and the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) have left NWS local forecast offices critically understaffed throughout this year's heightened severe weather. In April, an internal document reportedly described how cuts could create a situation of 'degraded' operations – shutting down core services one by one until it reaches an equilibrium that doesn't overtax its remaining employees. The changing climate is also making simultaneous weather disasters more likely, such as overlapping tornadoes and flash floods – creating emergency preparedness difficulties and compounding the effects of funding cuts. Deadly storms earlier this spring in Kentucky and Missouri featured torrential rains during an ongoing tornado outbreak, a nightmare scenario that demands close attention by emergency managers to avoid people seeking shelter in flood zones. At the NWS office in Jackson, Kentucky, however, a staffing shortage meant there was no on-duty forecaster for the overnight shift when the storms were at their peak. This year marks the first time that local NWS forecast offices have stopped round-the-clock operations in the agency's modern history. Now, additional meteorologists are being remanded from research roles – where they'd normally be working to improve techniques and make advances for future years – into the forecasting frontlines in an attempt to fill the staffing gaps. 'The world's example for weather services is being destroyed,' wrote Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin, on social media earlier this spring after a round of major changes were announced. In May, the main computer system that distributes NWS weather alerts to local partners for emergency broadcast suffered a lengthy outage. By the time the system was back online hours later, at least one flash flood warning, near Albuquerque, New Mexico and at least one tornado warning, near Columbia, South Carolina, never made it to the public. The decision to collect a bedrock source of data for forecasters – weather balloons – has been deferred to local offices, essentially making twice-daily launches optional for understaffed forecast centers. In June, offices that missed balloon launches serve New York City, Atlanta, Portland, and more than 10 sites in the midwest. Of the 91 launch sites, just over 70 sites were consistently launching balloons during peak tornado season in May – a loss of one-quarter of this critical data source. First used in 1896, weather balloon launches are still the single-most important type of data that meteorologists use. Weather balloons are the only way meteorologists have of taking direct measurements of air pressure, winds, temperature, and humidity throughout the atmosphere simultaneously at about 1,000 locations across the world – this data forms the basis for all computer-derived weather forecasts that appear on weather apps. Since upper atmospheric winds generally blow from west to east in the US, the persistent data loss has tended to affect weather forecasts in the eastern half of the country the most – exactly where tornadoes are happening more frequently. The entire process to launch a weather balloon takes a NWS employee about three hours. Since the balloon launches are time-consuming and difficult to automate, they're being phased out at NWS offices with staffing shortages – even though they collect essential data. 'At the expense of weather balloons, we would rather focus our energy on looking at other data that will allow us to be able to give you the advance prediction that a tornado will occur,' Suzanne Fortin, meteorologist in charge at the Omaha NWS said in a March press conference shortly after the cuts were announced. 'That's the reason we're suspending, so we can focus on those life-saving warnings that can keep people safe.' In May, every living former director of the NWS signed on to an open letter with a warning that, if continued, Trump's cuts to federal weather forecasting would create 'needless loss of life'. Despite bipartisan congressional pushback for a restoration in staffing and funding to the NWS, sharp budget cuts remain on pace in projections for the 2026 budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent organization of the NWS. On Monday, in its annual budget request to Congress, Noaa proposed a slight budget increase for the NWS for fiscal year 2026 while maintaining deep cuts to its research budget that provides tools to forecasters. 'Noaa leadership is taking steps to address those who took a voluntary early retirement option,' Erica Grow Cei, an NWS spokesperson, said in a statement to the Guardian when asked about staffing. 'NWS continues to conduct short-term Temporary Duty assignments (TDYs), and is in the process of conducting a series of Reassignment Opportunity Notices (RONs) to fill roles at NWS field locations with the greatest operational need. 'Additionally, a targeted number of permanent, mission-critical field positions will soon be advertised under an exception to the Department-wide hiring freeze to further stabilize frontline operations.' In a 5 June hearing on Capitol Hill, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, whose role includes overseeing Noaa, and by extension the NWS, defended the administration's approach claiming agencies were 'full staffed' and were 'transforming how we track storms and forecast weather with cutting-edge technology'. 'Under no circumstances am I going to let public safety or public forecasting be touched,' he said. . Studies over the past decade have shown that global heating may be acting to both intensify tornado outbreaks and shift the tornado season eastward and earlier in the year. Warmer air can also hold more water vapor, making extreme rains even more intense. Five of the past six seasons have had a higher-than-average death toll. This year's tornado season is the second-busiest on record, and last year's was the third-busiest. Weather experts generally agree that this surge in tornado activity is due in part to unusually warm temperatures over the Gulf of Mexico that have helped supply the eastern US with the necessary ingredients for tornado formation. At the same time, new studies suggest that unusual summertime warming is concentrating activity into fewer days. The NWS anticipated some of these changes and had been planning to consolidate and modernize its forecast systems to be more responsive to complex weather emergencies. But what was supposed to be a multi-year transition to a 'mutual aid' concept has instead taken place haphazardly over the past several weeks. According to climate scientists and public safety experts, all of this adds up to more deaths in disasters. As peak hurricane season approaches, this is a big concern. Eric Holthaus is a meteorologist and climate journalist based in Minnesota
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
In 2025, Tornado Alley has become almost everything east of the Rockies — and it's been a violent year
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Violent tornado outbreaks, like the storms that tore through parts of St. Louis and London, Kentucky, on May 16, have made 2025 seem like an especially active, deadly and destructive year for tornadoes. The U.S. has had more reported tornadoes than normal — over 960 as of May 22, according to the National Weather Service's preliminary count. That's well above the national average of around 660 tornadoes reported by that point over the past 15 years, and it's similar to 2024 — the second-most active year over that same period. I'm an atmospheric scientist who studies natural hazards. What stands out about 2025 so far isn't just the number of tornadoes, but how Tornado Alley has encompassed just about everything east of the Rockies, and how tornado season is becoming all year. The high tornado count in 2025 has a lot to do with the weather in March, which broke records with 299 reported tornadoes — far exceeding the average of 80 for that month over the past three decades. March's numbers were driven by two large tornado outbreaks: about 115 tornadoes swept across more than a dozen states March 14-16, stretching from Arkansas to Pennsylvania; and 145 tornadoes hit March 31 to April 1, primarily in a swath from Arkansas to Iowa and eastward. The 2025 numbers are preliminary pending final analyses. While meteorologists don't know for sure why March was so active, there were a couple of ingredients that favor tornadoes: First, in March the climate was in a weak La Niña pattern, which is associated with a wavier and stormier jet stream and, often, with more U.S. tornadoes. Second, the waters of the Gulf were much warmer than normal, which feeds moister air inland to fuel severe thunderstorms. By April and May, however, those ingredients had faded. The weak La Niña ended and the Gulf waters were closer to normal. April and May also produced tornado outbreaks, but the preliminary count over most of this period, since the March 31-April 1 outbreak, has actually been close to the average, though things could still change. What has stood out in April and May is persistence: The jet stream has remained wavy, bringing with it the normal ebb and flow of stormy low-pressure weather systems mixed with sunny high-pressure systems. In May alone, tornadoes were reported in Colorado, Minnesota, Delaware, Florida and just about every state in between. Years with fewer tornadoes often have calm periods of a couple of weeks or longer when a sunny high-pressure system is parked over the central U.S. However, the U.S. didn't really get one of those calm periods in spring 2025. The locations of these storms have also been notable: The 2025 tornadoes through May have been widespread but clustered near the lower and central Mississippi Valley, stretching from Illinois to Mississippi. That's well to the east of traditional Tornado Alley, typically seen as stretching from Texas through Nebraska, and farther east than normal. April through May is still peak season for the Mississippi Valley, though it is usually on the eastern edge of activity rather than at the epicenter. The normal seasonal cycle of tornadoes moves inland from near the Gulf Coast in winter to the upper Midwest and Great Plains by summer. Over the past few decades, the U.S. has seen a broad shift in tornadoes in three ways: to the east, earlier in the year and clustered into larger outbreaks. Winter tornadoes have become more frequent over the eastern U.S., from the southeast, dubbed Dixie Alley for its tornado activity in recent years, to the Midwest, particularly Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana. Meanwhile, there has been a steady and stark decline in tornadoes in the "traditional" tornado season and region: spring and summer in general, especially across the Great Plains. It may come as a surprise that the U.S. has actually seen a decrease in overall U.S. tornado activity over the past several decades, especially for intense tornadoes categorized as EF2 and above. There have been fewer days with a tornado. However, those tornado days have been producing more tornadoes. These trends may have stabilized over the past decade. This eastward shift is likely making tornadoes deadlier. Tornadoes in the Southeastern U.S. are more likely to strike overnight, when people are asleep and cannot quickly protect themselves, which makes these events dramatically more dangerous. The tornado that hit London, Kentucky, struck after 11 p.m. Many of the victims were over age 65. The shift toward more winter tornadoes has also left people more vulnerable. Since they may not expect tornadoes at that time of year, they are likely to be less prepared. Tornado detection and forecasting is rapidly improving and has saved thousands of lives over the past 50-plus years, but forecasts can save lives only if people are able to receive them. This shift in tornadoes to the east and earlier in the year is very similar to how scientists expect severe thunderstorms to change as the world warms. However, researchers don't know whether the overall downward trend in tornadoes is driven by warming or will continue into the future. Field campaigns studying how tornadoes form may help us better answer this question. For safety, it's time to stop focusing on spring as tornado season and the Great Plains as Tornado Alley. Tornado Alley is really all of the U.S. east of the Rockies and west of the Appalachians for most of the year. The farther south you live, the longer your tornado season lasts. Forecasters say it every year for hurricanes, and we badly need to start saying it for tornadoes too: It only takes one to make it a bad season for you or your community. Just ask the residents of London, Kentucky; St. Louis; Plevna and Grinnell, Kansas; and McNairy County, Tennessee. Listen to your local meteorologists so you will know when your region is facing a tornado risk. And if you hear sirens or are under a tornado warning, immediately go to your safe space. A tornado may already be on the ground, and you may have only seconds to protect yourself. This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
