LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky has seen some destructive lines of tornadoes in the past couple of years, but they never seem to hit Louisville's downtown proper.
Before the tornadoes that hit in early April and left damage in the Newburg area, Google searches for the question, "Can tornadoes hit big cities?" spiked.
The question:
Can tornadoes hit big cities?
Our Sources:
- National Weather Services' Meteorologist-in-Charge John Gordon
- Dr. Jason Naylor, associate professor at the University of Louisville's Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences
The answer:
Yes, tornadoes can hit big cities, and they gave several examples.
In New Orleans, Louisiana, the strongest tornado in the metro area's history hit in March of 2022, and then another tornado hit the city in December.
And Little Rock, Arkansas was hit by the same line of storms that headed east to hit Louisville hours later.
Years ago, a tornado hit Atlanta, Georgia in 2008. That tornado moved through downtown and blew out windows from their CNN building, and giant billboards toppled onto cars.
Gordon said he's been hearing this myth for years.
"Cincinnati has been hit over the years. Miami, Salt Lake City, Louisville 1974. That is complete nonsense. Okay, the heat of the city protects you? Total nonsense," he said.
Gordon's main message: do not take these storms lightly even if you are close to downtown.
Naylor said tornadoes directly touching down in the downtown parts of cities is rare, but it's not because it's impossible; it's because of land mass.
"Urban areas are kind of small, particularly in the areas of the country, where we have a lot of tornadoes, like in the Great Plains, or in the southeast US. There aren't a lot of major cities," he said.
He said downtown cities are not a big target for a tornado to hit.
"Most of the space in Tornado Alley is kind of open land or maybe even smaller towns and communities. So it's just, just a numbers game really," Naylor said.
So yes, tornadoes can hit big cities, but it's not as common simply because in the US there aren't as many cities as there is rural land.
Naylor added urban areas impact weather, just not in the way you think.
"A lot of big cities impact how much it rains and where it rains; a lot of cities have more precipitation downwind of the city than over the city itself," he said.
Louisville's climatology shows there has been more rain on the eastern side of Louisville than over Central Park over the last several years Naylor said.
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