Over the past few decades, tornadoes have been shifting - decreasing in the “Tornado Alley” of Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas but occurring more in states along the Mississippi River and farther east, according to a new study published in the journal Climate and Atmospheric Science. Tornado activity is increasing most in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and parts of Ohio and Michigan. There has been a slight decrease in the Great Plains, with the biggest drop in central and eastern Texas. Even with the decline, Texas still gets the most tornadoes of any state. The shift could be deadly because the area with increasing tornado activity is bigger and home to more people, said study lead author Victor Gensini, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Northern Illinois University. Also, more people in those areas live in vulnerable mobile homes and tornadoes are more likely to happen at night in those places, he said. Gensini said unless there are specific, detailed studies, he and others cannot identify with certainty the cause of the shift. Climate and Atmospheric Science.