- Tornado outbreaks are moving from Texas and Oklahoma toward Tennessee and Kentucky, where people may not be prepared
Kinda related: Supercell tornadoes are much stronger and wider than damage-based ratings indicate
Seems like the classical "tornado alley" was always a bit of a misconception, to me: The most important thing that I've realized within the last few years is related to what you allude to (in "kinda related"). The "condensation funnel", which is what we use to visually identify a tornado, is a bit arbitrary when it comes to damaging/dangerous wind speeds. The humidity, dew point, pressure differential, and even the line-of-sight integration (literally an integral through transparent vs. opaque air) all play somewhat of a part when it comes to identifying a "funnel". Actually, I think the most important element may be a characteristic length/time-scale of turbulence that enables the formation of visible condensation/cloud-like funnels near the ground. This vid (55 seconds in) kinda illustrates my point. It is the boundary between laminar flow and still air where opaque condensation forms. Unless that's all dust. But I don't think it is. I think we've talked about this before, briefly, but it still rattles around in my mushy brain sometimes.
While it's not all 'dust', for all the reasons you mentioned, it may be a contributing factor. If you look at 1:24-1:32, there's a visible delineation on the ground close to that building, where it'd make sense for heavier particles to slow down/fall. There's also a rainbow, so unless it's a camera artefact (and I'll be the first to admit knowing relative fuckall about those), we have water there too.Unless that's all dust. But I don't think it is.