I hear the term “tornado alley” being used frequently. What area
is being referred to? Does the Chicago area have a tornado
alley? “Tornado alley” is an often used but inconsistently
applied term and, as the American Meteorological Society notes,
“Since (tornado) statistics are variable on all-time scales, the
term has little scientific value.” This is especially true when
the body of tornado data is restricted to a relatively small
geographical area such as metropolitan Chicago. Conclusions
drawn from such a limited database are meaningless. Broadly
speaking, U.S. tornadoes occur most frequently in the area from
north-central Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska into
central South Dakota. This area is loosely defined as tornado
alley.