Replies to post #138144 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

kozuh -- trust me, not so -- the circulation of in particular a major/intense tornado can extend vertically well over ten miles, a couple/few hundred feet of surface elevation variability is trivial -- there have been tornadoes that have flattened everything in their path up one side of a mountain and down the other in the Rockies -- not frequently, correct -- but they do occur -- the Jarrell ultimately lifted due to the microscale atmospheric conditions/the evolution of its parent supercell -- not because of any topo -- and in any event there's plenty of quite flat land out to the west as well once you get on top of the escarpment

(I am quite familiar with Austin and environs -- very pretty area, but hardly tornado-proof -- and again, it's the major/intense tornadoes in particular that will track the topo)