Texas’ KXAN interviews Houser on ‘shifting’ Tornado Alley

Dr. Jana Houser with the University of Oklahoma’s Rapid-scan, X-band, polarimetric mobile radar (RaXPol).

NBC channel KXAN interviewed Jana Houser, Ph.D., for a segment headlined “Why do scientists believe ‘tornado alley’ is shifting?”

Researchers are still trying to figure out how climate change plays a role in small-scale disasters. At Ohio University in Athens Ohio, Jana Houser believes tornadoes correlate with the hydrologic cycle, and drought in the South Central Plains could be a factor in the shift.

“If we’re drying up the soil, we’re drying up the low-levels of the area. We’re less likely to see the atmosphere having the ability to generate those storms in comparison to a more moisture rich area,” said Houser.

Houser is associate professor of Geography in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Read the article at KXAN.

Houser also was quoted in a Wall Street Journal story headlined “Tornadoes Rip Through Texas With Strong Storms Moving Eastward.”