April 6, 2022

In 2019, before the US' most misspelled word became "quarantine" (no, "corn-teen" isn't right), the US had a beautiful problem. As in, we couldn't spell it. The leading "how to spell" Google searches in California, Texas, and Florida were all for "beautiful." Puzzlingly, Hawaii's top one was "Hawaii."

Is "Tornado Alley" a misnomer? Read today's Wrap to see why the twister term is misleading.

― Key Stories

Darwin's Notebooks Recovered
Overview

• 2 of Charles Darwin’s notebooks were anonymously returned to a Cambridge University library, 21 years after they disappeared
• A note on the return package – a pink gift bag – said, “Librarian, Happy Easter X.” The books were reported lost in 2001 and reclassified as stolen in 2020
• The theft sparked an international hunt that was never solved. The library's director said she cried upon discovering the notebooks’ return
• The director said one notebook was “like a diary of [Darwin's] intellectual process.” Darwin conceived of the theory of natural selection in 1838, at age 29

Australian Drug Bust
Overview

• Border police in Australia are searching for details after finding a $190M cocaine shipment in the ocean
• 4 Filipino men have been arrested and accused of dropping the drugs off their cargo ship. The police found the drugs in the ocean, near an abandoned luxury boat. They are searching for details about the boat and drug buyer
• The shipment contained 917 pounds (416 kg) of cocaine, making for the largest bust ever recorded in southern Australia
• Australian police said the bust equaled half of all the cocaine seized nationally in 2021

JetBlue Bids on Spirit Airlines
Overview

• JetBlue offered to buy Spirit Airlines, 2 months after Spirit agreed to an acquisition offer by Frontier
• The merger between Spirit and Frontier, 2 low-budget airlines, would have made the joint company the US’ 5th-largest airline, surpassing JetBlue, the US’ 6th largest
• JetBlue reportedly offered 40% more than Frontier, complicating the Spirit deal
• The 3 airlines each say a merger is necessary for them to compete with the “big 4” airlines that dominate 70% of US air travel

Elon Joins Twitter's Board
Overview

• Twitter added Elon Musk to its board of directors, a day after it was revealed he owns 9.2% of the company and is its largest shareholder
• Board members have a direct say in strategic decisions but not day-to-day operations like content moderation. The appointment blocks Elon from owning 15%+ of the co., making a takeover unlikely
• Twitter's CEO said he was “excited,” and called Elon “a passionate believer and intense critic… which is exactly what we need”
• Musk said he’s “looking forward… to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months”

See yesterday's results below the Wrap!

 Popcorn

Culture & Sports

• In the hole, Tiger! Tiger Woods plans to play in the Masters this week and believes he can win. Last year, many considered him done
• The UNC-Kansas men's basketball championship drew an average of 18.1M viewers. For comparison, this year's Oscars averaged 16.6M
• HBO Max is reportedly considering 2 potential Sherlock Holmes spinoff TV series which Robert Downey Jr. would produce

• A construction crew replacing a boardwalk in Utah over a dried-up lake damaged 112M-year-old dinosaur tracks 
• Residents of a 5-story apartment building next to the Miami condo building that collapsed last June were evacuated on Monday
• Satire Twitter account "Ballsack Sports" duped Stephen A. Smith into a false report that Kyrie Irving and James Harden had a verbal spat
• A carpet cleaner in the DC area speaks 8 languages fluently and 24 conversationally, according to a report from the WaPo 

― Roca Wrap

A Newsletter Exclusive

In 1952, US Air Force meteorologists were examining severe weather in Texas and Oklahoma. They coined the term “Tornado Alley,” and since then, tornadoes have become synonymous with the Great Plains. 

Many meteorologists argue that the concept of “Tornado Alley” is misleading, though. Twisters have been recorded in all 48 continental states, and the state with the most tornadoes per 10,000 square miles – Florida – isn’t even in Tornado Alley. In fact, just 1 (Kansas) of the top 5 tornado-prone states is in the plains.

Beyond the frequency, the strongest tornadoes often happen in the southeast, particularly in an area known as “Dixie Alley.” Forming a triangle between Texas, Tennessee, and Florida, this region experienced the 2 largest twister outbreaks on modern records (in 1974 and 2011), and consistently experiences the longest, strongest, and deadliest tornadoes. 

So why are the Great Plains famous for tornadoes? Its tornado season is more predictable—usually late spring and early summer, with storms in the afternoon. Its vast flat, largely uninhabited land makes its storms easy to track. Compared to Dixie Alley, it’s convenient for storm trackers and photographers to consistently document.

But it’s the southeast where tornadoes are deadliest. 

Between 1950 and 2006, the 5 states that suffered the most tornado deaths were Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Part of this is because the south has multiple tornado seasons stretching from the fall through the spring.

Its storms are also unpredictable: Because of its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, southeastern tornados usually form quickly while cloaked in rain, making them harder to see. Unlike the Great Plains, hilly topography further hampers their visibility.

Southeastern twisters are more likely to rage throughout the nights and early mornings, when people are sleeping. The population density of “Dixie Alley” is also greater than “Tornado Alley,” and a larger percentage of its houses are manufactured or mobile homes, which are more vulnerable to the storms. 

While some scientists say climate change has worsened the southeast’s storms, many point to another trend: Urban expansion. The south is one of the US’ fastest-growing regions. Where there used to be uninhabited plains and forests, neighborhoods are rising. The more places humans occupy, the more likely they are to be in the path of a future tornado. 

 Games

1. Ithaca, NY
2. Corvallis, OR
3. Lawrence, KS
4. Morgantown, WV

 Roca Clubhouse

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― Final Thoughts