Why are there more tornado-producing storms in flat plains than in mountainous areas?

Question

Why are there more tornado-producing storms in flat plains than in mountainous areas?

Answer 1

Mountains actually inhibit tornadic development.

Answer 2

Surface frictional forces due to the slope of the mountains, the temperature and pressure differences over the slopes etc., prevent the formation of tornadoes.

Answer 3

The two together actually cause the tornado.  The cold air descending from the mountains heats up with the warm air coming from the plains or low lands, causing wind streams and inclement weather.

Answer 4

Tornado-producing storms maybe formed either in flat plains or mountainous areas depending where the two (2) different temperatures and humidity meet to form thunderclouds. The place where these two winds meet is called a dryline. In the United States, the dryline or the place where the wet winds moving northward in spring and summer from the Gulf of Mexico, meet the colder and dry winds moving southward from Canada in the Central Plains that is why most  tornado-producing storms in the U. S. came from flat plains.

Answer 5

Actually, based on my experience, the mountain areas can get more radar based tornadoes signatures than over the valley or plains.  This is especially true since you will get more forced lifting with certain aspect of how the wind flows with hills and mountain around the area.   However, there are usually less people living per square miles or KM in the mountainous areas than in the plains and river valley.  And the mountains will more likely block the view of a tornado in a certain distance.  In the plains, a tornado can be relatively far away and you can still see it from a distance.

With more people now moving into the foothills and mountain region, we have noticed an increased in funnel cloud and tornado reports over the past decade over the higher elevations.  With more people in the mountains, we are now getting more confirmed tornado sightings in the mountains.

Also, with the old radar (before Doppler), the mountainous areas will fill the scope with false echoes due to ground clutter and blocked beam that it would be almost impossible to see the tonadic signature of a thunderstorm.  So the only good radar data from the pre-Doppler days is in areas where the land is flat.