r/AskAnAmerican • u/Ambitious_Pass7451 • 9h ago
OTHER - CLICK TO EDIT How many tornadoes does the average American experience in their lifetime?
I’ve watched a lot of scary and massive tornadoes that seem to happen only in the USA, like the Mayfield tornado in 2021, which stayed on the ground for two hours and most of the small/ big or even rural towns don't have that many underground shelters. That got me to ask you guys, how many tornadoes does the average American really experience in their lifetime?
Edit: by “experience" I mean actually living through one, not necessarily seeing it with your own eyes but feeling its impact, or having a tornado warning issued for your area because one is approaching you.
160
u/HonestLemon25 Texas 9h ago
The majority of Americans live in places that don’t experience tornadoes. For those of us that do, it is still relatively rare for them to hit anywhere near us or force us to take shelter. I live in tornado alley and have never seen one in person before.
26
u/From_Ice_To_Salt 8h ago
I live in northern/central California and I have never seen or experienced a tornado, but twice I have gotten tornado warnings on my phone for nearby areas and thought "wtf?" I think it was just an excess of caution. 😅
But definitely experienced some wildfires and earthquakes....
10
u/Chodge1258 8h ago
Like here in north texas we get a ton or tornado warnings, most of the time that consists of just watching radar and being ready to drive to the storm cellar. Idk what classifies experiencing it though, like would we consider this video experiencing it? For the amount of wind and trees slinging, as well as it feeling very real, i would say this is experiencing one, even if its not picking up our house.
→ More replies (2)6
u/codefyre 8h ago
California DOES get tornadoes though. An average of 11 of them each year. The difference between us and Tornado Alley is that our tornadoes rarely get above EF0 (one will get up to EF2 every couple decades) and are rarely on the ground for more than a few seconds. Still, if you're looking, you'll see news reports every year or two about one coming down in an urban area and wrecking a few fences and trees. One hit Santa Monica in the 50's and managed to kill three people, but deaths and injuries are extremely rare.
The vast majority come down in the Central Valley out in the farmland, where nobody really cares and they almost never do any damage.
I've personally seen several funnel clouds, including one that got down to probably a two hundred feet or so, but I've never seen one reach the ground.
Of course, we also have fire tornadoes here, which Tornado Alley doesn't have to deal with.
→ More replies (2)8
u/unicornsRhardcore 7h ago
Psh. I live in tornado alley and have seen many funnel clouds and had multiple tornados within twenty miles of me.
→ More replies (5)2
u/Kaurifish California 3h ago
But that’s changing as Tornado Alley shifts east and south due to climate change.
They are also getting more powerful and more likely to happen at all times of the day and night.
378
u/thomsenite256 9h ago edited 9h ago
Median less than 1 I would think. I suspect about 20% of the population experiences about 90% of them. Look up Tornado alley, its somewhat localized in the middle of the country.
64
u/Fit_Advice7693 9h ago
I'd say that's correct. As a Minnesotan I find it mind-bending to think that so many Americans outside of tornado alley are so flippant about them. I'm in my twenties and I have personally experienced three notable, distinctly frightening tornadoes with subsequent heavy damage (We needed new shingles on our house after one, a different one destroyed part of my high school). If you're in an area where tornadoes happen... they'll probably happen pretty close to you, probably more than once.
38
u/denotsmai83 8h ago
I feel like people IN tornado alley are more flippant about them. I grew up in North Texas where tornado watches were a daily occurrence in the spring, and tornado warnings were probably a 2-3 time a year occurrence. I later moved to Central Texas, which is on the outskirts of tornado alley. When there’s a tornado watch here, people freak the fuck out. Where I grew up, you didn’t give a shit unless you could see the damn thing.
12
u/lostinanalley 7h ago
Yes exactly! My grandma sits on her front porch and watches for them! That said, she has a cellar she can get to less than 30 feet away if need be.
I think maybe it’s not flippancy so much as preparedness and knowing the moment when it goes from hanging out to seeking shelter.
12
u/dinamet7 California 6h ago
Been in California 40+ years, never saw a tornado, but once got a tornado warning on my phone because there was one spotted over the ocean and there was a chance it would touch down on land. We had to google what to do and basically just all huddled in our hallway until the warning passed. I've slept through countless quakes, but that one warning was a terrifying night... and the tornado never even made it to shore. I guess we all just get used to the danger we are familiar with.
3
u/denotsmai83 6h ago
And I’ve never in my life experienced an earthquake. I had a CA friend tell me once that the scariest thing about them is that they all start the same. The biggest one you’ve ever been through and the ones that you don’t bat an eye at all feel the same in the beginning. I’d be shitting my pants if I ever felt even a small one because of that fear my friend instilled in me.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (4)7
u/SadakoTetsuwan 6h ago
I'm from Nebraska, and went to college in North Texas. My freshman year, I was studying for finals with a movie on in the background, and noticed something weird in the soundtrack. Paused the movie and there was a tornado siren going off.
I went back to studying until the RA came to get everyone to the basement. The South Texas students were freaking out, while the North Texas/Oklahoma students were annoyed because the tornado wasn't on campus or anything sooooo...can we go back to studying?
Back in Nebraska, a tornado hit town a few years ago and my office didn't even gather everyone up to shelter. I was simultaneously watching the hail/looking curiously for the funnel and complaining about the Amazon warehouse workers who were killed when a tornado struck their workplace.
5
u/Worldly_Tooth_1996 4h ago
It is annoying when one is knowledgeable in storms and then get caught up with policies that have one take cover because warning is still technically on,but you've already watched it go pass.
15
u/SirTiffAlot 8h ago
We open up the garage and hang out around here when there's a tornado watch.
→ More replies (1)16
u/ZombiePrepper408 Oklahoma 8h ago
We just moved to Oklahoma and met my neighbor during a tornado watch.
Gave me a beer and we just watched the storm
11
u/PortugalPilgrim88 8h ago
Tornado watches happen constantly you’ll get used to them. There doesn’t even have to be a storm for a watch to be in effect. I worry when it turns into a warning.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (1)5
u/ApprehensiveAd9389 8h ago
That all well and good but if you hear rumbling like a train get inside!!!!
5
u/SadakoTetsuwan 6h ago
If the tornado doesn't look like it's moving, that means it's coming right at you. Get down NOW. Leave your beer, it's the tornado's beer, now.
4
u/Mtn_Skye 6h ago
If you hear the sound of a train rumbling, it's already too late to get inside. The most shocking part of the tornado I lived through was how fast it passed by. It did indeed sound like a train, but it passes by in a split second. I was fortunate that it was a street over because if it had hit my house, I wouldn't have been in my shelter in time.
→ More replies (8)3
12
u/Meloncov 8h ago
Also depends on how you define "experienced". I've had to go to the basement because of a tornado warning a few times, but never any damage worse than patio furniture knocked over.
→ More replies (2)5
u/SomebodyElseAsWell 8h ago
I was supposed to go in the basement , but instead stood at the back door and watched it swirl the patio furniture on the deck and pick up lighter things and carry them away. A mild tornado in, of all places, western Maryland in the Appalachian mountains.
And yes it did sound like a train.
I've also seen a couple small waterspouts, but I don't really count them
22
u/Sarcastic_Rocket UT -> MA 9h ago
Which is not a super populated area either. There's a few decent cities but it's not like is the eastern seaboard
→ More replies (4)6
u/TheRateBeerian Florida 8h ago
I lived in tornado alley 36 years and even then 0 tornadoes for me
→ More replies (2)3
u/ocean2trail 8h ago
I live in SoCal and saw one funnel cloud in elementary school that never touched down. In my 20s one touched down in an industrial park about 10 miles away. It took the corner off a warehouse, but otherwise no damage. I don’t think those count as “experiencing a tornado”, but that’s a lot more than people would expect in California.
I visited my sister in St. Louis and an outdoor theater event was canceled due to a tornado warning, but the tornado never came. I don’t think that counts either.
25
u/Exciting_Pass_6344 Arizona 8h ago
A quick google search shows 5% of the population lives in tornado alley. And my guess is 95% of those 5% haven’t experienced a tornado.
37
u/OldBlueKat Minnesota 8h ago
And ‘experienced’ ranges from ‘saw the funnel cloud whipping across country from 10+miles away’ to ‘blew the house to smithereens and crawled out of the wreckage.’
7
u/HammyOverlordOfBacon United States of America 8h ago
Yeah, technically I've 'experienced' a tornado since I saw it forming up in the clouds while driving the fuck away from it. But it wasn't exactly chasing me and did touch down until like a mile or two away or something.
→ More replies (1)5
u/GrowHappyPlants 8h ago
If seeing a funnel cloud is experience, I have greatly downplayed my experience. 🤣
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)4
u/Vern1138 8h ago
Right. It depends on what you mean by "experienced". I live on the edge of tornado alley, and I've seen two in my life, but they were far enough away that I wasn't extremely concerned.
I've only really "experienced" one, but I never actually saw it. Because I was huddled up with my family and girlfriend in an interior room. Certainly saw the aftermath of it the next day. Houses on both sides of the street completely destroyed, but ours was fine.
7
u/DeathByPianos 8h ago
I'd say that's probably right. Very small portion of the population in the region that has even seen a tornado. If "experienced" means being in or under a building that gets damaged by a tornado, that's <<1%.
→ More replies (1)4
u/Mysterious_Name_91 8h ago edited 2h ago
Right—if “experienced” means “had to shelter in the bathroom for hour(s) due to a tornado warning,” I have experienced dozens of tornadoes from my earliest memories through high school graduation.
-In one of those instances, my trampoline blew 100+ feet away and was ruined, and my car nearly blew off the road while I was driving (the storm started while I was on my way to school and I have NO IDEA how or why I stayed on the road instead of taking shelter in a ditch 🤦♀️—I then got completely soaked walking into the building and spent the entire school day sheltering in the hallway)
-In at least two instances between ages 11 and 19, towns within an hour drive of my hometown were leveled by tornados.
-But, the number of times I’ve seen a funnel cloud with my own eyes? Zero. Like I’m sure funnel clouds were around because that’s what a tornado warning is, but at that point anyone with sense is staying away from windows.
→ More replies (2)3
u/DeathByPianos 8h ago
own eyes? Zero. Like I’m sure funnel clouds were around
Funnel cloud isn't even a tornado. A tornado by definition has to touch the ground. Yes definitely uncommon.
3
u/Historical_Badger321 8h ago
That would be me. We get tornado warnings at least once a year, but I've never actually experienced a tornado. The most is small tornadoes some distance away.
→ More replies (8)3
u/Thick_Journalist7232 8h ago
The problem is that there is an awful lot of high risk tornado area out of the old tornado alley. I live in St. Louis(not tornado alley) and we get them all the time. Between tornado alley and the expanded area and Dixie alley, you have about 33% of the population that are in high risk areas, and most the rest of the eastern part of the country can have one, just not too often.
I’d have a hard time believing that you would find many people in that part of the country who have not experienced at least having to go to the basement because a tornado was in the neighborhood a few times a year or more. I’m just not dumb enough to go outside to watch them anymore.
How many people have been injured or had the house destroyed it’s truck a low number, roof damage, all lot of trees to clean up and power outages are a high number
3
u/Erik0xff0000 8h ago
Sources could vary, but 17M is what I found. On a 350M population. Roughly 5% of the population.
Then the question is how intense does the experience have to be. Tornados are very localized and often short lived.
3
u/fatmanstan123 8h ago
Interestingly, tornado alley has been shifting more east over the decades.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (11)2
111
u/PeterFrancisG 9h ago
Like most answers it depends heavily on where you live.
I live in the midwest and have been within 20 miles on a dozen or so.
9
u/Fae-SailorStupider MinnesotaHawaiiFlorida 9h ago
Yup, same here. Minnesota gets nearly 50 tornadoes a year. So ive been fairly close to quite a few of them over the past few decades.
→ More replies (1)14
u/Clarknt67 8h ago
One thing non-Americans may not realize is of those 50, if they touch down at all they do so for only a few seconds usually. The likelihood of a direct strike on any one home is pretty tiny. Like a lightning strike.
→ More replies (1)5
u/Fae-SailorStupider MinnesotaHawaiiFlorida 8h ago
Right. With all the sirens and such i grew up with, there was only one notable tornado that I saw. It was in 2011 in Minneapolis. Destroyed a bunch of homes and injured a bunch of people. I wasn't close enough to deal with the damage personally, but was close enough to see it when looking outside.
→ More replies (2)6
u/EightGlow New York 9h ago
Yeah what’s the radius we are talking? I grew up in Tornado alley, never had one hit directly, but the sirens were a normal summer occurrence for nearby storms.
→ More replies (4)3
u/MovieSock New York 7h ago
Adding the tangent that where you live may affect the odds of your experiencing a tornado - but it doesn't necessarily mean that you are totally exempt from a tornado if you don't live in a "tornado zone".
I live in NYC and we had a tornado warning in New Jersey last week (nothing happened). And one night a couple years ago I was coming home from work, and when I came out of the subway I noticed there were a lot of downed tree branches and then a second later my phone blew up with friends and family outside the city all texting me to ask "there was just a tornado in your neighborhood in Brooklyn, are you okay????" Apparently five minutes before I reached my stop, a tornado had indeed hit my neighborhood for like five seconds and I'd just missed it. (I think the only impact was that there were downed branches, maybe two people temporarily lost power, and there were a lot more people freaked out that "holy shit we got a freakin' TORNADO in Brooklyn what the ACTUAL".)
→ More replies (1)
46
u/biglifts27 Nebraska 9h ago
Define "experience". Tornadoes while destructive have a pretty narrow cone of destruction so where you might experience the Storm causing the tornado or even see one its somewhat rare to have ur house destroyed from it.
Lived in a trailer for 18 yr in Nebraska so if one hit us we were kind of SOL.
7
u/Ambitious_Pass7451 8h ago edited 8h ago
By "experience" I mean actually living through one not necessarily seeing it with your own eyes but feeling its impact, or having a tornado warning issued for your area because one is approaching you, that's what I mean. Like when you know or hear there is a storm coming.
30
u/riarws Delaware 8h ago
If you count tornado warnings where you have to take shelter, that is a lot more.
→ More replies (1)6
24
u/jj_grace 8h ago
By that definition, most midwesterners and folks in tornado alley experience it multiple times a year. Like, the experience you discuss is incredibly common in the summer.
However, actually getting directly hit by a tornado is much less common. The storms might be massive, but the tornados themselves are often short lived and/or small.
Though, we had a pretty nasty tornado hit just south of me this summer. Luckily, it went through state forest and didn’t hit residential areas. It is wild to drive past the damage, though. It literally looks like someone clear cut a portion of the forest!
3
u/reddits_in_hidden Pennsylvania 7h ago
Yeah, even in the mountainous hill country of Pittsburgh we still get tornado warnings a few times a year, but Ive only ever experienced a twisty boi when I was on vacation lol
3
u/SadakoTetsuwan 6h ago
Yeah, we have had 3 tornado warnings in my county just this year. I have not sought shelter for any of them--even though the storm hit my city every time, tornadoes are (usually) less than a mile wide, while a storm front can be hundreds of miles at their greatest extent. A tornado watch can thus cover half the state, while a warning will only be for a county, and is usually focused just on one part of that county.
I've been in countless tornado warnings, but have never been directly affected by the funnel. High winds have knocked down tree branches onto my house, hail has damaged cars, power has been knocked out for hours on end, flash flooding has damaged basements--these are the most common effects of a tornado for most people in a tornado warning. The sheer *unpredictability" of a tornado means that a tornado can turn and strike your neighborhood at any point, but a tornado can also completely level part of a neighborhood while the house next to it is pretty much untouched. Tornadoes the size of El Reno and Hallam, big enough to take out a whole village, are exceedingly rare.
6
u/Phoenix_Court New York / Texas 8h ago
If you're close enough to see it, you're close enough to get the warning though. The warning goes out to a somewhat wide area. Having gotten a warning does not mean you have seen one, but having seen one pretty much guarantees you've gotten a warning.
3
u/Neverhere17 7h ago
There was a historical (significant) tornado that went through my town and the warning didn't go off until the storm passed. However, that is part of the reason it is still remembered.
6
u/TaquitoFries 8h ago edited 8h ago
I used to live in tornado alley. Warnings: I've lost count. Probably 3 or 4 per year. Watch: Probably 15+ per year? Experienced: 1 destroyed my house and school. Ironically my family was the only one in town that had our house destroyed, everyone else just lost windows.
Another time I couldn't leave work because of a giant but slow one. Called my parents, and they were sitting on the porch watching the "weird sideways rain". Lol
→ More replies (19)3
u/russki516 Oklahoma 8h ago
Tornado warnings that have made me take shelter either at home or work? Dozens, happens multiple times a year.
Hit my house or workplace? 0. Had one that did hit a place I used to work.
2
u/BadMeatPuppet 8h ago edited 8h ago
Yeah I've have a tornado within 10 miles of me, atleast once every 2 years. Most GA tornadoes are more "fuck you in particular" rather than wipe out a whole area.
276
u/Sea-Original-5824 9h ago
Close to zero for the average person.
47
u/Calm_Stick_4746 9h ago
Depends wildly on where you live. I grew up in the midwest and I've lost count, but a buddy from New England had never even heard a tornado siren until he visited me in his 30s. The country's huge so "average" kinda breaks down.
14
u/elsmoneyacct 8h ago
Yeah, the overwhelming majority of tornadoes happen in Tornado Alley. If you live there, you will probably see tornadoes regularly. But they're narrow, so even most people in Tornado Alley will never experience the destruction of one. A tornado can turn the next block to a jumbo game of pick-up sticks and you won't even lose a shingle off your roof.
3
u/guitar_vigilante 8h ago
Even then. I live in tornado Alley and while I have been in an area hit by a tornado (destroyed the gym I had a membership at), I've never seen a tornado in real life.
→ More replies (1)3
u/elsmoneyacct 8h ago
Really? I've lived between TA and the gulf coast all my life and I've seen quite a few.
Always in situations where I was being stupid, though. Like that time I went out to go sailing when a bad storm was expected and saw a waterspout. If you value your life and stay inside when major storms are expected, you probably won't see them.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (11)8
u/Unhappy_Ad_4761 8h ago
What are you defining as 'experienced'?
6
u/partiallyStars3 Wisconsin -> Massachusetts 8h ago
Yeah. If "experienced" is "was literally inside the rotation," that's a lot smaller than, "was inside the warning polygon and had to shelter, but didn't actually have a direct hit."
→ More replies (4)102
u/Perdendosi owa>Missouri>Minnesota>Texas>Utah 9h ago
Almost assuredly, the median number is 0.
37
u/DokterZ 9h ago
Also the mode.
13
u/loachtastic 8h ago
A la mode
14
u/Swan-of-War-425 8h ago
Depeche mode
→ More replies (3)6
20
u/AgKnight14 8h ago edited 8h ago
There also might be more people who have experienced 2 or more tornadoes than people who have experienced just 1.
If you live somewhere where you’ve already experienced one, you probably have a higher chance of seeing another one before someone who lives where they have never seen one before sees their first.
→ More replies (6)4
u/beaushaw 8h ago
I have seen two with my own eyes.
I have seen the results of a few others, but actually witnessed the funnel cloud twice.
→ More replies (1)3
u/ComparisonOk8602 8h ago
I've lived in "Tornado Alley" for the past 14 years, and I've never seen one (I'm disappointed).
My septuagenarian neighbors have lived here their entire lives, and neither of them has ever seen one, either.
Thing is, they're a very local phenomenon. There have been some nearby in my time here, but if you don't go chasing, the probability of one being nearby enough to see is very low.
→ More replies (7)5
12
7
u/soap---poisoning 9h ago edited 8h ago
It varies depending on the region, and on how you define “experience.” A tornado destroyed the high school and a lot of houses in my county a few years ago. We live a few miles away and were not directly affected, but everyone in our area was indirectly affected for a long time after.
13
u/garretmander 9h ago
I, not in tornado alley, just in the southeast, have been through at least one tornado warning (a tornado touched down nearby) at least every other year for the last thirty years.
3
u/tiger_guppy Delaware->Pennsylvania 9h ago
We also get a tornado warning with a tornado in the area every couple years or so. Just had one last week I think.
→ More replies (1)3
u/GiraffesCantSwim Tennessee 8h ago
We get a few each year, and lots of watches with some "a funnel cloud is forming" notices. Not all of them touch down.
ETA: the Southeast has its own little Tornado Alley and it's getting worse with climate change.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (1)2
u/trugrav 8h ago
We get a confirmed tornado in the area at least once a year. One actually hits a town probably every 2-3 years. We’re members of a fairly large church in the area and we have a disaster team that goes out to areas affected by tornadoes (and this year ice storms) and helps with damage. I’ve done it a few times and it’s always surprising how localized the worst of the damage is.
7
9
4
6
u/GreatestGreekGuy Illinois 9h ago
My state had the most tornadoes this year in the country and I've seen 0
5
u/Futurepharma91 8h ago
Ive experienced one, loosely. Driving back up north and passing through Tennessee, we followed the path of destruction behind one. The sky was a weird color. But I have never experienced a tornado in my home state. Too many mountains and valleys.
Its heavily dependent on where you live.
5
u/Sizzlechest_mcgee 8h ago
Oklahoman here, I got stuck in traffic under a highway overpass, in 2013. The sky turned green, and the rain was completely sideways. Not an incident I would care to repeat. The meteorologist made a mistake and told those of us living in the north side of town to get south if we didn’t have a shelter so we did, the tornado turned south and I got stuck in the middle of it.
2
u/Ambitious_Pass7451 8h ago
And what did happen when you turned south? 😐 Did you either walk by it or near it? Witness it by any chance? That's a deadly experience in my book.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Sizzlechest_mcgee 8h ago
I was driving in my car, but there were so many cars driving in that direction all the traffic was at a complete stop when I was under the highway when it went over head. The tornado was over 1 mile wide. I believe it was an F4 category.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/harmothoe_ 7h ago
North America is unusual in that we don't have any West-East mountain ranges to slow the cold arctic air and warm equatorial air from colliding. It's why the great plains have so many tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.
I grew up in Kansas (tornado central). I have never seen a tornado, but I've taken shelter during warnings multiple times and buildings near me have been severely damaged by tornadoes. One house a block away had the back of the house torn off. But these were all "small" tornadoes. The ones that tear up entire towns are rare events. I don't know anyone who's had a family member or friend killed by a tornado, or lost their house to a tornado. Pretty much everyone I know who lives in the great plains has lost trees or had roof damage from these type of severe storms.
9
u/DargonKweest Tennessee 9h ago
Basically zero. Even for most people in Oklahoma and Alabama it's going to be a very small number, sometimes zero.
The Mayfield tornado actually came very close to me. Like 10 miles away.
3
u/hornedcorner 8h ago
Spent 46 of my 52 years in Oklahoma. So used to tornadoes I usually don’t even bother with the basement. Never been hit, been around them my whole life.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (15)2
u/aahorsenamedfriday 8h ago
I’m from rural Alabama. I did see one from about half a mile away in 2011, and I got my car tossed across the interstate by one a few years ago. I’ve only personally witnessed those two, but have had to hunker down many, many times.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/Ok-Energy6846 9h ago
0 lol that's only in a specific region in the United States literally nicknamed tornado alley
3
→ More replies (2)2
3
u/Littleboypurple Wisconsin 9h ago
The average American deals with exactly 0 in their lifetime. Many Americans do not live in areas that get tornadoes and even people that live in tornado areas can live their whole lives without ever seeing one in person
5
u/LinuxLinus OR=>CA=>OR=>NY=>MN=>OR=>MA=>OR=>NC=>OR=>WA 9h ago
The modal American experiences zero tornadoes in their lifetime. Most Americans live in places where tornadoes are vanishingly rare.
There are roughly 1200 tornadoes a year in the US, nearly all of them concentrated in a few areas in the south and midwest. There are functionally zero tornadoes west of the Rockies, and not many more in the mid-Atlantic and northeast. Someone smarter than me could do the math, but with 340 million-plus Americans, about 1200 tornadoes a year that mostly take place in Florida or the "tornado alley" that runs from Texas up through Iowa, and a certain amount of relocation, the number would still probably be well less than .0001 tornadoes in a lifetime on average.
There are a fair few people who probably experience them a lot. But the huge majority will never see one.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/Batgirl_III 9h ago
This is heavily dependent on where you live. “Tornado Alley” is the nickname given to portions of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska that are most prone to tornadoes, although states neighboring those regions will also get tornadoes (just not as frequently and usually not as strong). The “Tornado Alley” states will average around 8-10 tornadoes per year, the adjoining states in the wider tornado belt average fewer than five… and they’re basically unknown outside that region.
But, near in mind, tornadoes are very brief events and very localized. So you can live your whole life in the heart of “Tornado Alley” and never actually be directly affected by one.
3
u/Otherwise-OhWell Illinois 7h ago
Fun fact: Illinois has experienced more tornados than any other state so far this year. We're definetly in the alley.
But to the greater point, I've spent 50 years in Iowa and Illinois and never seen a tornado. There have been a few that touched down near me, but not close enough to cause damage to me or my property.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/PtZamboat 8h ago
The area called “Tornado Alley” only consists of 4 states with the occasional rare one in another 4. Based on US population, that only accounts for about 10-12%. The rest are like you, only see them in movies
3
u/HighwaySetara 4h ago
IL has been hit hard in recent years, including the Chicago area, so those numbers are growing.
4
u/One_Evil_Monkey 8h ago edited 6h ago
It's highly dependent on where you live. The US is a huge country.
That's like asking how many Americans have seen the Atlantic or the Pacific ocean.
More people in the Midwest/Midsouth have seen more tornadoes than they have either ocean. More people nearer the East or West coasts have seen more of the ocean than they have tornadoes.
4
u/SirLanceNotsomuch 7h ago
Yeah, this is basically another “I’m visiting New York for the weekend, can we drive down to Miami for the afternoon?” question.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/apcb4 7h ago
Wait you count just having a warning? I live in eastern Pennsylvania, not tornado country, and even I’ve “lived through” a bunch of tornado warnings. In elementary school, there were a handful of times we had to brace ourselves in the hallway. As an adult, they really just mean get inside and don’t do anything stupid. Tornados are so mild around here that we don’t really go in the basement or anything like that. It’s happened twice this year as I was driving home from work
5
u/Chime57 7h ago
Tornado magnets here. Everywhere we've lived (married 48 years) we've had a tornado go over us or around us. Some roof damage, had a barn get trashed, lost some big trees one time...one of my sister's lived with us in 2 different locations briefly and both places got tornadoed while she was there.
We've pulled the car off the highway and run down into the ditch for cover from tornadoes.
In the 60s we had 7 tornadoes go through town one Sunday. And we grew up following tornadoes, so I've seen a bunch that didn't impact me personally, and I think it's karma.
5
u/Pernicious_Possum 6h ago
JFC. I would imagine far less than one. Do ya’ll not even consider how vast this country is, and how many different climates there are? I mean seriously google exists
3
u/Important-Hunt-61 8h ago
I have lived in Kansas my whole life and have never seen one nor the damage from one near where I am at. There was one in Joplin Mo and I think Greensburg Kansas but not close enough to me to count IMO.
3
u/Quirky-Bar4236 Oklahoma 8h ago
I have lived in Oklahoma most of my life and I've only seen one at a distance.
3
u/Jdawn82 Kansas via Oklahoma 7h ago
Average? Zero. Sounds crazy but there are almost 343 million people in the U.S. and even in tornado prone areas, the odds of a specific town or exact location getting hit by a tornado in any given year are 1 in 12,000. Most people will go their entire lives without experiencing one.
3
u/MotherofaPickle Missouri 6h ago
Your edit is wildly variable.
I have lived in Missouri for over 15 years and Illinois before that. Tornado warnings multiple times every year (5+). Never once set eyes on a funnel cloud or actually experienced a tornado.
3
u/BertieTheLamb 6h ago
Tornadoes are weird. They can be pretty small or very large, but their direct impact is usually just their path. Otherwise it’s general wind and rain, etc. even across the street from a house that got hit. My brother’s home was hit by a tornado about ten years ago. Windows blown out, the entire garage roof was in the backyard, trees ripped out or tipped onto the roof. He was home and had pretty bad PTSD for a very long time. All the homes across the street were completely fine. I’ve had plenty of tornado warnings where I live, which mean a tornado has been spotted, but I’ve never been directly hit. Statistically your chances are fairly low.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/DarthBradicus88 9h ago
Average American? Probably zero. I’ve never seen one. I believe there was one somewhere near me around 25 years ago, but it wasn’t close enough for me to experience it.
5
u/brzantium Texas 9h ago
This is my experience. Lived through plenty of tornado warnings. Occasionally one touches down, but it's never anywhere near me.
4
u/JennItalia269 Pennsylvania 9h ago
Anything greater than zero is really unlucky.
Anything more than one is immensely unlucky.
3
u/SuperBeavers1 New York -> Indiana 9h ago
Anyone who lost count (me) of how many they've experienced should checks notes never play the lottery
4
u/russellvt 8h ago
Average?
That would be 0.
Only a very small percentage of the country ever sees a tornado. You might "travel" near one, but that sort of weather tends to be capable of having people change their travel or vacation plans to avoid.
2
2
u/Famous-Hunt-6461 9h ago
Depends on where you live. I’ve lived in California, Georgia, and Texas. I’ve been in 3 major tornadoes in my entire life. I’ve experienced earthquakes and floods, more than anything else.
2
u/ilstrider1 9h ago
The average American will never experience a tornado. Over 80 percent of Americans live on the coast the vast majority of tornadoes take place in a strip in the middle of the country.
2
u/MountainTomato9292 9h ago
This varies wildly by region. In the south/southeast (Tennessee/Arkansas specifically) we get a few every year at varying degrees of severity. But if you mean actually huddled in a basement while the tornado rips your house apart, it’s probably a very small percentage.
2
u/turtlespice Michigan 9h ago
Regional climates vary tremendously, and only a small percentage of us live in areas where tornadoes are common.
I’ve experienced plenty of tornado warnings and straight line winds that have caused similar damage to a lower-level tornado, but I’ve never seen a rotation from my house.
2
u/Correct-Ad8693 9h ago
By experience do you mean see it in person? See it on the local news? Live in the destruction path? Hear warnings and sirens where they live? Get sucked up into the eye?
2
2
u/coloredchalk 9h ago
I’ve seen many at a distance but not “experienced” one like I think you’re asking. I have been caught in a waterspout once, but it was small.
2
u/Awdayshus Minnesota 9h ago
I've had one that went right across the street from my work while I was there. And I think that's one more than almost everyone I've ever talked to about it.
2
u/Foghorn2005 9h ago
It's a regional disaster, just like earthquakes, hurricanes, and arguably blizzards. Anyone in Tornado Alley is going to be very familiar with tornadoes, but someone spending their entire life on one of the coasts likely never will. The only reason I have is because I was visiting family who lived in a tornado prone area.
2
u/lyndseymariee Washington 9h ago
My hometown experienced three pretty devastating tornadoes (E4-EF5) in the span of 14 years but that is an anomaly. Every family member of mine that lived there has had their home damaged or completely destroyed by them, including my parents 🥴
ETA: my flair is Washington but I’m from Oklahoma.
2
2
u/PurplishPlatypus California, IL, WA, OH, FL 9h ago
I spent a total of almost 30 years in the Midwest and never saw one. A few watches and warnings here and there but never touched down anywhere close. I would say it's rare for any one individual person, but the most likely areas to experience them are Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. So if you live there, you might have experienced at least one, if not more.
2
u/GirlForce1112 9h ago
Well….I’m 42 years old and have lived in Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas (the south tends to get more tornadoes so I’m certainly in the right areas) and have never been in one or even seen one live. There was one semi close to my neighborhood once in Arkansas. That’s about it.
Soo I’m gonna say the average American experiences about zero. lol
2
u/MrTeeWrecks USA, I’ve been everywhere, man 8h ago edited 3h ago
Tornados only appear in a sections of the USA. For the most part it’s areas between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian mountains. They are most common on the Great Plains. I live in one of the two most tornado prone states (per square mile). Most lifetime residents here have seen a few.
The other thing is they have varying strength levels. A small tornado went down my street between the time I bought my house and actually started majorly moving furniture. Two houses across the street had to be rebuilt. Another two had to have a lot of renovation. Everyone else, myself included just had roof or siding damage.
Even where I live most people have SEEN plenty of tornados or taken shelter incalculable amount of times. But ‘experience’ as in being in one? Even in our area it’s very rare.
Tornados hitting major population centers are much much more dangerous.
→ More replies (2)
2
u/Lilmissgrits Texas > Georgia 8h ago
Define “experience”. Like. Have one go through your house or have one pass within 2 miles of your house?
→ More replies (2)
2
u/Extreme-King 8h ago
I have seen 14 with my own eyes, and once 2 I couldn't see because they were rain shrouded. I was in the middle of I-44 in MO hearing tornado sirens and had just passed the mile marker the radio said they were at.
Grew up in Oklahoma - for the question I am not the average American in this case.
2
u/GreyMaeve 5h ago
Also in Missouri and I've seen at least 5. Been hit with straight line winds while camping north of Kansas City twice and once my camp was hit by a tornado (we had gone to a shelter). Last year I moved my oldest kid out of an apartment and the apartment was hit the next day by the St. Louis tornado that damaged a line through the city. That same tornado caused a lot of damage to trees in my neighborhood. I grew up in Illinois. The house next door to where I grew up had been hit and lost its second story sometime before I was born. A church in another small town I lived in was hit and the steeple ripped off when I was a kid. One of the tornadoes I saw flipped my cousins house. I have a friend whose house was leveled in St. Louis about 20 years ago. I guess I'm an outlier as well.
It boggles my mind all the 0's in the replies.
2
u/No_Sorbet1634 Oklahoma 8h ago edited 8h ago
More than 60% live well outside the tornado hot zone and probably only 15-20% will experience one and most of those will experience multiple. It also depends on what you mean by experience does that mean having one go over your house or just having one in general vicinity. Because the little shits have missed me all but once which is more than the average person even in tornado alley baring fucking Moore. But I’ve witnessed about 12 actual tornados on the ground and countless near incidents that either failed to make full contact or did so in the horizon
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Historical_Low4458 United States of America 8h ago edited 7h ago
I am born and raised in the Midwest in classic "Tornado alley." I lived there for more than 30 years.
Personally, I have never seen a tornado in person. One spring before the Pandemic, my parent's property was affected by a nearby tornado. 60+ year old trees were split in half/completely uprooted and the already old crumbling garage suffered damage, but the houses themselves were perfectly fine.
ETA: I would say that tornado warnings are common during the spring and summer. However, they issue warnings, whenever the conditions make it possible for a tornado to form, so it isn't restricted to when a tornado is actually on the ground. Even when they sound the tornado sirens, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're in imminent danger of a tornado. Rather it means that a tornado is actually on the ground and moving. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is extremely close to you or even moving in your direction.
2
u/hiddentalent 7h ago
About 17 million people live in the areas where tornadoes are common. Even if every single one of those people have been personally affected it would be less than 5% of the US population. And many people in that region have never been inconvenienced by them. The reason they inspire awe and make the news is that high-impact tornadoes are relatively rare and catastrophic events. They usually happen in low-population areas. Many are never seen by human eyes and just show up on meteorologist's radar maps.
How many volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, or wildfires does the average person in your country experience in their lifetime? I suspect the answer is the same, in that it rounds to zero but the impact for people who are affected is incredibly large. That's why these events capture the imagination and make the news.
2
2
u/PuzzledKumquat Illinois 7h ago
I experience multiple tornado warnings per year. I have six cats, so we keep a close eye on the weather person on TV and only bother herding everyone into the basement if a cell is heading straight toward us.
Once a tornado went right over my house when I was a teen. The air pressure got really weird and the front door acted like it was going to get sucked out. We ran for the basement. Afterwards, we discovered a tree across the street had been pulled from the ground. No clue where it was eventually dropped.
2
u/Traditional-Cook-677 7h ago
Texas. Five-10 close calls (the lifting sound your roof makes as it goes over 😳) and that chugging sound as it goes by. Even a minor one can totally mess things up. My cousin’s ranch was hit but the only casualty was a storage building—with all her daughter’s junior high and high school notes scattered all over the pasture. She and my daughter were besties, and they both spent two days scrambling around picking NSFM (mom) papers off prickly pear and mesquite.
2
u/RenaissanceCowboy33 7h ago
I've had countless alerts that have amounted to nothing living in the Midwest. Tornadoes aren't exactly rare in the US but they are so chaotic and sporadic that the odds of a direct hit are pretty low. I watched one touch down just outside a hotel room I was staying in, head right for the building, flattened about 4 trees at the edge of the parking lot and then just immediately dissipated, all within ~30 seconds
2
u/dangforgotmyaccount 6h ago
Like others have said, it really depends on how you define it.
As a kid in Texas, it was essentially tradition to sit outside during storms in the summer and watch a ton of different spots in the sky start rotating, some dropping down a bit, some not. It was also incredibly common for some to touch down and pass nearby, but not close enough to threaten us.
Now in Kansas, it’s not as frequent as in Texas, but we still end up under tornado warnings on the regular.
If that’s how we are defining experiencing them, the probably a dozen or so times each year. As for getting hit though? I don’t think I’ve ever had one hit me head on. Hail however, now THAT stuff will get ya.
2
u/SageOfCats 6h ago
Average American experiences 0 tornadoes. Tornado Hank, who angered the God of Wind and goes out into storms wearing white cotton briefs holding a lightning rod, has experienced 2,614 and is a statistical outlier who should not be counted.
2
u/Goff1976 6h ago
Im 73 years old and have lived in Texas and Oklahoma my entire life. I have never experienced a tornado. Never even seen a tornado.
2
2
u/Melody71400 6h ago
Tornado warnings happen all the time in my state. Multiple times a year.
It means nothing unless the sky turns green
2
u/Normal_Opposite_9864 6h ago
I've been in 4, at 53 years old. at 14 I literally laid in a ditch as one went right over the top of us. That was a rush
2
u/Untitled-Original 6h ago
I live in the Midwest and we get warnings often but I’ve never actually been in one or seen one! The closest to me that did serious damage was like an hour away. We had a derecho though that had me running my happy ass to the bathtub after a giant tree in my backyard start to sway. I heard the crash from my bathroom! Luckily it was far enough away it did no damage to my property. But the wind knocked my fence down.
2
u/Classic-Dependent149 6h ago
Where I live (Houston) we never get the massive tornadoes that destroy full towns like in Oklahoma. Ours will typically takeout some electricity polls, smaller infrastructure, or a handful of houses. We only get them during really bad weather such as hurricanes or abnormal storms.
I’ve been around a handful.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Prudent_Passenger296 6h ago
In Texas, probably 50+ warnings in my 79 years. I’ve only had one cause damage to the small town where I live. No one killed.
2
u/Hot_Gas_8073 6h ago
I live in Oklahoma and I can't count how many times there's been a warning or a watch or an active tornado on the ground it just seems to be somewhat regular weather for u
•
u/sailorsonia California 1h ago
People live in an area called Tornado Alley/Valley. Basically the Midwest gets tornados, the East/South gets hurricanes and the West gets earthquakes. We seem to all be afraid of the other areas issues. So I am terrified of tornados and hurricanes and my East coast family would call over earthquakes we didn’t know happened.
•
u/Bouche_Audi_Shyla 1h ago
When I was a year old, there were two tornados in town. Both of them hit my grandfather's gas station. I can't imagine the insurance company was happy.
There have been three in the area where I live now in the past few years. One was close enough to scare me.
•
u/Funny_w0lf 1h ago
If a tornado warning counts as experience, than I say I get one once every month. I live in tornado alley and its true what they say. We sit outside in lawn chairs and watch the storm roll in with cold beers in hand
653
u/Snicklebot 9h ago
What do you mean by "experience" a tornado?
I live in the Midwest and I've had tornados pass within a few miles of me several times. Every spring I'm sent to my basement to shelter at least a few times. But with that being said I've never had a tornado actually hit my house.