Why do most tornadoes occur in Oklahoma?

Answer 1

Most tornadoes occur in so-called Tornado Alley because the weather "converges" there to make for a much higher probability that they will form in that location. Use the link below to see a map that "shows the weather" responsible for many of these beasts. This will tell you with a picture what would take a couple of paragraphs to explain.

Answer 2

The central United States has a region called Tornado Alley covering the great plains. Here a number of conditions come together that are ideal for tornado formation.

Warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico frequently moves over the region from the south. This collides with cool air from Canada and dry air from the Rockies. This collisions of air mass is often triggers thunderstorms, often very strong ones. The region also frequently gets strong wind shear. This can tilt storms, causing them to further intensify, and can also start them rotating. Tornadoes develop from this rotation.

Another factor is a layer of very stable air that forms about a mile off the ground, called a cap. This cap holds back thunderstorm development, causing instability to build up underneath it. If a developing storm is strong enough it can break through the cap, and if it does it will develop rapidly and become very intense.

Answer 3

There are several regions. The most active areas is between the Rockies and Appalachians, particularly on the Great Plains. Here, warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with cool air from Canada and/or dry air from Canada, creating strong thunderstorms. A stable layer of air called a cap initially holds back storm development, allowing instability to build until the storms can break through and develop explosively. Finally, strong upper level winds create wind shear, which sets storms rotating, allowing them to produce tornadoes. These conditions can occur elsewhere, but not with the same frequency as in the U.S.

Another reason comes down to reporting. The U.S. is probably the best country in terms of tracking and recording tornadoes. In other countries, many of the tornadoes that do occur do not get reported as they do in the United States, thus skewing statistics.

Answer 4

The region is prone to collisions of air masses with a very large difference in temperature and/or moisture content. Such collisions produce strong thunderstorms. When wind speed and direction changes with altitude ( a condition called wind shear) can can cause the storms to intensify even further and sometimes start to rotate.

Such powerful rotating storms, called supercells, are what produce the majority of tornadoes.

Answer 5

The majority of tornadoes to not occur in Oklahoma, but the state does have an usually high incidence. Oklahoma is in a region called Tornado Alley where a number of conditions come together to create tornadoes.
In the spring the lower atmosphere heats up more than the upper atmosphere, creating instability as warm air is less dense. Then storm systems pull warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, creating even more instability. At the same time the bring in masses of cooler and/or drier air. These air masses act like wedges, nudging the warm, moist air upwards until it starts to rise on its own, forming thunderstorms. At the same time strong upper level winds create wind shear that tilts the storm, intensifying them and giving them the rotation they need to produce tornadoes. Finally there is the an inversion layer called a cap. This cap initially prevents thunderstorms from forming, allowing instability to build under it until finally the storms are strong enough to punch through or "break the cap." When this happens the storms develop explosively.

Answer 6

Much of the central U.S. is in a region known as Tornado Alley. This region stretches across the plains in the middle part of the country. Here, warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico meets cool air from Canada and sometimes warm air from the Rockies. This can produce very powerful thunderstorms. Shifts in wind speed and direction with altitude, called wind shear, set these storms rotating, turning them into supercells, the primary producers of tornadoes, especially strong tornadoes. Related effects in adjacent regions lead to a high rate of tornado occurrence in most of the region between the Appalachians and the Rockies.

Answer 7

it is because th land is flat