What's up with all the crappy, dangerous weather in the plains and the midwest?

Question

How come the plains and the midwest are so prone to tornadoes and violent storms? Sure, they happen elsewhere too, but not with such great frequency. Why is that?

Answer 1

oh my gosh i live by the missippi river and we are starting t5o flood becuz all the rain and our bridge over to quincy is blocked and also im supposed top get crappy weather

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/vi...

Answer 2

First it's called Tornado alley because it has so many Tornads, the Tornados aren't there because it's Tornado alley.

Tornados, come from sever Thunder (or Lighting) storms. These storms are created when there is a large pressure differencial at a storm (weather) front. Warm air from the Gulf going North hits Cold air from the Artic (Canada) and where they collide you get extream pressure differentials. A cold front brings most thunder storms. They are short with hard rain. Warm fronts don't have the wind and bring those day long soaking rains. When they collide you get High winds, heavy rains, hail, Tornados, and if over water water spouts. Tornados also spring from large Tropical Storms, for the same reasons, except the low pressure Tropical front can be so low it does't need to hit another front to create tornados. A Hurricane can form 100 or more Tornados as it hits land. These tornados are different than the midwest's Tornados in that they tend to be smaller and don't last long. Many riding the ground for less than 100 feet. BUT if you are in that 100 feet it wouldn't matter to you if it went 100 feet or 100 miles on the ground.  Lastly and I don't know why, but trailer parks seem to work like a magnet on Tornados.

Answer 3

Because there is nothing to break up the air movement. It is all pretty much flat. No geologic buffers.

Answer 4

I dont know if I completely agree with that.

Tornadoes are more common in the midwest because that is where tornado alley runs.  The winds from the west, and the way cold and warm fronts tend to collide in the interior of the country tends to lead to this.

As for flooding happening more in the midwest?  Just because it is happening now doesnt mean it happens frequently.  I live in the midwest.  I have had many, many tornado warnings and watches, but have never personally seen or been impacted by one- nor do I know anyone that has.  We have had a little flooding where aI live over the years- but it has always been localized around the rivers and never widespread.

I would say places like Florida, Louisiana, and the Carolinas are much more prone to bad weather than the midwest (hurricans are much more severe and widespread than our midwestern storms), and we dont get the fires that FL or Cali get, nor the earthquakes.  I would personally say that when it comes to catastrophic weather and natural occurences, the midwest is one of the safest places to live in the world (and the insurance companies agree, with our homeowners insrance rates being the lowest in the country).