Tornado Alley and Beyond

The central United States — from Texas to South Dakota — is known as Tornado Alley because the geography is perfect for tornado formation. Cold, dry air from Canada collides with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, creating the instability.

But tornadoes are not limited to the US Great Plains. They occur on every continent except Antarctica. Bangladesh suffers some of the deadliest tornadoes on record — the 1989 Daulatpur-Saturia tornado killed roughly 1,300 people, the highest known death toll from any single tornado.