PNAS Science Sessions3 Sep 2024

Why twisters target the United States

Why "Tornado Alley" is unique to North America

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Funing Li and Dan Chavas explain why North America produces many tornadoes each year and South America does not.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[01:01] Weather and climate scientist Funing Li talks about the frequency of tornadoes within and outside of the United States.
•[01:25] Li explains the geography of severe thunderstorm hotspots in North and South America.
•[02:46] Weather and climate scientist Dan Chavas and Li describe how they became interested in the effect of surface geography on tornadoes.
•[05:13] Li and Chavas explain their modeling approach.
•[07:23] Li and Chavas talk about why surface roughness is important for tornado formation.
•[08:14] Chavas and Li describe the implications of the study, including effects of climate change and insights into paleoclimate.
•[09:43] Caveats and limitations of the study.
•[10:26] Conclusion.

About Our Guests:

Funing Li
Postdoctoral associate
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dan Chavas
Associate professor
Purdue University

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2315425121

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