Is Tornado Alley moving away from Kansas?

TOPEKA (KSNT) – A drop in severe weather in Kansas for 2025 is leading some to wonder if the state is still in the path of Tornado Alley.

Compared to some past years, the summer of 2025 stands out for its lack of severe weather events in some places, like northeast Kansas. Residents in this area endured only two weak tornadoes in the past year, a big shift from 2024 when there was more tornadic activity in the area, such as when an EF3 tornado hit the town of Westmoreland.

Fox 43 News reached out to the National Weather Service office in Topeka to learn more about the recent dip in tornadic activity in northeast Kansas. NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist Chad Omitt gave his thoughts on the topic and whether or not Tornado Alley is moving.

“One of the things that’s been interesting about what we’ve seen with the tornadoes across the south is that they’ve occurred in areas where you have a greater population density and more of their tornadoes often occur at night, and so the vulnerability is higher. And so a lot of the times the outcome is worse and that leads to, I think, more reporting, it’s more of a newsworthy event when people are hurt or killed.”

Omitt said the destruction caused by tornadoes in the south has led some to believe that Tornado Alley is moving away from the Midwest. However, he said this is not the case and that Tornado Alley might be expanding to encompass a wider area.

“I think the better description of what’s happened is more of an expansion of tornado alley, they call it Dixie Alley, so it has its own name,” Omitt said. “So, this is not a relatively new thing for them down there, but it’s certainly something we’ve heard more about, oftentimes because of the poor outcomes of people being hurt or killed.”

Omitt said that years with low tornadic activity might be followed up in the future by stronger activity. You can learn more about Tornado Alley and Dixie Alley by heading to the NWS website.

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