> That map is showing the only definition of tornado alley there can be if you insist on a single definition: where tornados happen.
That's a weird definition you're insisting on. More than half the width of the country isn't an alley.
It's true that anything narrower is giving up on "single definition: where tornadoes happen". But that's also what you have to do. It's an inherent part of the term to be more narrow than that entire map. Raleigh isn't in tornado alley.
You're correct, Raleigh isn't in tornado alley. Raleigh also gets a fraction (somewhere around 1/3rd) of the tornadoes that St Louis does. Whereas St Louis gets as many tornadoes as most of whatever YOU consider "tornado alley".
Your use of "YOU" is weird when I haven't even really decided what I think should be called tornado alley. I just wanted to point out that whatever method you're using is not "single definition: where tornadoes happen"; it's something more subjective.
Also to be clear I was using "Raleigh" as shorthand for "that orange cell right next to Raleigh", which is the same 11-15 color as St. Louis.
I never said it wasn't subjective, so I'm not sure why you're commenting here. I said IF one insisted on a single definition. i.e. like the person I was replying to did.
"That orange cell right next to Raleigh" is an outlier, unlike say... St Louis.
> I said IF one insisted on a single definition. i.e. like the person I was replying to did.
And I'm saying that you're wrong on that. IF there is a single definition, it's not the one you proposed.
Also it's worth noting that even if a definition of a term is subjective, people can still be right or wrong; subjectivity usually has limits.
> "That orange cell right next to Raleigh" is an outlier, unlike say... St Louis.
I thought you might say that. But if you want to look at the local area, then do that on both cities! Multiple cells in the St Louis area only have 1-4. The average is 5-10. And there are also multiple 5-10 cells right next to Raleigh. St Louis gets more tornadoes, but it's not by a very big factor.
And the Springfield MO area is on par with the Raleigh area. So, as a thought experiment, if that should matter... well, then we'd want to define tornado alley to exclude Springfield. The line from Springfield MO to Chicago has significantly fewer tornadoes than the areas on either side, so a very natural outcome would be splitting the tornado risk into two swaths, east and west. And huh, the West one more or less matches that supposed map of tornado alley. And it doesn't include St Louis.
I'm not saying that definition is necessarily right, but it's reasonable.
That's a weird definition you're insisting on. More than half the width of the country isn't an alley.
It's true that anything narrower is giving up on "single definition: where tornadoes happen". But that's also what you have to do. It's an inherent part of the term to be more narrow than that entire map. Raleigh isn't in tornado alley.