So I know that tornadoes can and do HIT big cities, it just doesn’t happened that often because of the “urban heat island effect.” But evervwhere seems to say it “hits” big cities, implying it form outside of the city and then went into it. But can tornadoes form inside the middle of cities, say over interstates, homes, and the like? Or is it impossible because of the
“urban heat island effect”?
In: 1
The urban heat island effect may decrease the chance of weak tornadoes, but won’t stop big tornadoes. The main reason big cities rarely get hit by major tornadoes is that they are relatively small in size, especially in the areas of the Great Plains and Gulf Coast southern states that are prone to tornadoes.
Yes. Tornadoes have formed in big cities (Brooklyn and Queens in 2010, Mobile in 2012, an industrial part of Dallas in 2019). Part of the issue is just one of geometric probability: most of a tornado’s path is not exactly at its start, so it’s more likely for a given location to be somewhere along the path than at the location where it starts.
Actually saying a location was “hit” does not necessarily mean that’s not where the tornado first touched down, though it does usually take a strong tornado at least a few minutes to reach full strength.
Latest Answers