By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Published: 20:33 BST, 29 August 2026 | Updated: 20:56 BST, 29 August 2026
America's tornado danger zone could engulf a vast new swath of the country late this century as conditions that fuel devastating outbreaks shift north and east.
The chilling warning comes from researchers who used a climate model that found outbreak-supporting conditions could expand across the Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast.
Tornado Alley traditionally stretches through the central Great Plains, including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, while the Southeast has its own deadly corridor, known as Dixie Alley, covering states including Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.
Under the new projections, dangerous conditions could become more common across Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, while reaching as far east as Pennsylvania and New York.
The changes are forecasted between 2065 and 2099 and apply specifically to May, historically the peak month for major US tornado outbreaks.
Researchers linked the potential shift to a warmer, wetter atmosphere and changing jet-stream and wind patterns, while stressing that traditional tornado zones would not necessarily become safer as the threat expands.
Dr Jana Houser, associate professor of meteorology in the atmospheric sciences program at The Ohio State University, who was not involved in the study, told Daily Mail: 'Frankly, the entire eastern half of the country should have a conversation about what the potential for increased tornado activity might mean for families and communities.'
'Everyone should have plans in place and take tornado risks seriously, even if your local community is traditionally not prone to tornado activity. It only takes one tornado to change lives.'
Houser cautioned that the study tracks changes in tornado-supporting weather, not how many twisters each region will see.
'This study specifically suggests that tornado-supportive environments might increase in frequency in the Midwest US in the future,' she said.
The Plains could still record the nation's most tornadoes.
The study, published in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, involved researchers from the University of Oklahoma, MIT, NOAA and NASA.
The team analyzed the atmospheric patterns surrounding 45 major May outbreaks between 1980 and 2014, then tested that fingerprint in a high-resolution global model under four emissions pathways.
