'Tornado Alley' shifts east. What does it mean for Western Pa.?

“Tornado Alley” has shifted east, but what does it mean for Western Pennsylvania? Not much, according to meteorologists.

The Weather Channel said a new study found that the most active tornado corridor in the United States — known as “Tornado Alley” — has changed in recent decades, and tornadoes are increasing in colder times of the year.

From the mid-20th century until the mid-1980s, “Tornado Alley” had peak activity in the Great Plains, according to The Weather Channel.

“The largest increase in tornadoes … has been from western Kentucky and the lower Ohio Valley to Mississippi and Louisiana,” The Weather Channel said. “Fewer tornadoes have occurred in recent decades in the Plains, from parts of Texas to Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and western Missouri.”

Even though there have been more tornadoes this year than usual in Western Pennsylvania, Colton Milcarek, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Moon, said the area has just been getting “unlucky.”

“At least here locally, we have not seen a significant increase,” he said. “Weather comes in phases.”

Milcarek said there have been years with no tornadoes — and years with a lot.

In 2024 so far, there have been 28 tornadoes in the NWS coverage area, which includes parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, according to Milcarek. Of those, 17 tornadoes occurred in May, and seven occurred in June.

“This is tied for most active tornado year on record with 2021, and a lot of that is because we’re able to see a lot more than we were able to in the past — because of better technology,” he said.

The NWS in Moon has been tracking official tornado counts since 1880, according to Milcarek, but there was a notable increase in counts in the 1960s due to better technology.

Tornado season in the Pittsburgh area typically occurs in June and July, according to Brian Hutton Jr., a meteorologist at WTAE, TribLive’s news partner, even though the area saw the most tornadoes in May.

“This year has just been an anomaly,” he said. “In fact, there was found no major seasonal changes in our number of tornadoes.”

He said Tornado Alley shifting east doesn’t mean anything to Western Pennsylvania as of now.

“We aren’t expecting any major changes in how much we see severe weather or how much we see tornadoes,” Hutton said. “This year seems to just be an abnormally high year — it is not enough yet to say our severe season is changing for the worst.”