TORNADO RISK ANALYSIS Is Dixie Alley an Extension of Tornado Alley?

Researchers in the US conducted a study to analyze the risk of tornadoes by examining the terms of Dixie Alley and Tornado Alley. The researchers focused on assessing the spatial tornado risk of the entire country and use the results to determine whether there was a significant region of elevated tornado risk in the southeastern part of the country or any other area that was distinctly separate from the traditional Tornado Alley of the Great Plains. Any method meant to define Tornado Alley required some subjective decision making by the researchers and that was acceptable till the decisions were well reasoned and justified. The researchers also analyzed the spatial distribution of tornado days rather than all tornado events in an effort to minimize some of the inherent inconsistencies of tornado data. Their results showed the greatest tornado frequencies in central Oklahoma and stretching to the east through Alabama and to the northeast through Iowa.