Dear Tom,

Could a tornado be dissipated with explosives?

-- Kenneth Deering, Springfield, Ill.

Dear Kenneth,

Meteorologist Roger Edwards of the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center has these comments. “The main problem with anything which could realistically stand a chance at affecting a tornado (e.g., hydrogen bomb) is that it would be even more deadly and destructive than the tornado itself. Lesser things (like huge piles of dry ice or smaller conventional weaponry) would be too hard to deploy in the right place fast enough, and would likely not have enough impact to affect the tornado much anyway. Imagine the legal problems one would face, too, by trying to bomb or ice a tornado, then inadvertently hurting someone or destroying private property in the process. In short — bad idea!”

Dear Tom,
I hear the term “tornado alley” being used frequently. What area is being referred to? Does the Chicago area have a tornado alley?

--Jacob Tonns
Dear Jacob,
“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.