why are tornadoes mainly in the midwest?

Answer 1

It is because the land is much more open and flatter than most other areas. A tornado requires alot of space to gain the kind of power required to up root large trees and tear apart houses etc... In a high populous area like a major city, the paved ground and buildingd such as homes, condo's and buildings help to break the funnel up. They do occurr in other areas but the frequancy is litterally once a year maybe only once every couple of years in certain areas.

It is the same thing in Canada tornados occurr in the prarrie provinces. The reason it is not as highly talked about is because our population is only 35million compared to the US 300million and our land area is much larger.

They can be detected and in some cases prevented, but like most things the government is not willing to put as much effort or money into it as they are other things.

Answer 2

I wouldn't say they're mainly in the midwest. They occur all over the world, and in the US they are also quite common in Texas and the South. People like to chase them in the Plains states because they're not only relatively common there, but it's also easy to see them.

By the way, unlike what one answer said, they do not require the collision of warm moist air from the Gulf with cold air from Canada--often times what's colliding is warm moist air from the Gulf with warm dry air from the west. The ingredients you need for a tornado are: (1) warm moist air near the surface, (2) winds that change direction or speed as you go up, (3) a cap that can seal the warm air near the ground until it has sufficient energy to rise explosively into the upper atmosphere.

Answer 3

Because that's where the warmer air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico collides with the colder air coming down from Canada, and the landscape is nice and flat so wind can go a long way with no obstructions - nothing in the way to drain its energy.
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