Tornado Alley is Shifting Eastward—and We're Not Ready
Unsung Science
CBS News
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2021
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tornadoes are nasty and dangerous. They appear and disappear so fast, there’s usually no time for evacuation—and the United States gets 75% of all the world’s tornadoes, about 1,300 of them a year. They occur all year ‘round, in all 50 states, but the biggest swarm forms in Tornado Alley, in the southern Plains states like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. In 2018, storm chaser and meteorologist Victor Gensini made a startling discovery: Tornado Alley has been shifting eastward. Their growing frequency in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee is a deadly development, because more people live in these areas, often in flimsy housing. And because there are more trees and buildings, it's much harder to see the devastation coming.
Guest: Victor Gensini, storm chaser and meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the climate change era, the disasters you hear about most are wildfires. |
| 0:09.0 | Well, wildfires and hurricanes. |
| 0:11.0 | Okay, wildfires, hurricanes, and droughts. |
| 0:14.0 | And flooding. |
| 0:15.0 | Tornados don't get as much love, but maybe they should. |
| 0:19.0 | I think they're the sexiest of all hazards. |
| 0:21.0 | Victor Gencini is a meteorologist and professor, |
| 0:24.0 | but above all, a storm chaser. |
| 0:27.0 | And in 2018, he published a paper that freaked out a lot of people. |
| 0:31.0 | Everyone was up in arms, and I had like 500 media requests overnight. |
| 0:36.0 | I'm David Pogue, and this is Unsung Science. |
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