David GEO161 Geography Paper 4/9/18 The Wizard of Oz is a movie that is based off the book by Frank Baum. One of the major themes of this story is geography. There are diverse habitats, varied transportation, and the use of directions. Geography is an important part of any story but especially the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy lives in Kansas which is a place that many people would hate to call home. Specifically, Kansas is an environmentally stressed place. Life is led in survival mode and organized by practical concerns. It is filled with dangerous cyclones. The story revolves around the tornados in Kansas. Why are there so many tornados in Kansas though? Kansas gets many tornadoes, particularly strong and violent ones, because of the unique geography of North America. The mixture of the Gulf of Mexico to the south and the Rocky Mountains to the west provides ideal environmental conditions for the development of tornados. Therefore, tornados in Kansas happen more frequently and more powerfully than any other place in the world. …show more content…
Thunderstorms need warmth, moist air near the ground, and dry air up high. Storms that produce strong tornadoes are also most likely to occur when the horizontal winds in the environment increase in speed. Generally, the surface winds blow from the equator. Kansas has the perfect climate for tornados because the surface winds come from the direction of the Gulf of Mexico, bringing in warm, moist air at the surface, and the winds aloft come from over the Rocky Mountains and are relatively dry. Therefore, when a thunderstorm reaches Kansas, it often becomes a tornado due to the right combination of temperature and moist profile. Oddly enough, no other part of the world has this combination of temperature and moist