[A] I was born in Wichita in 1950, and lived here until 1976 (except for a couple years in St. Louis). I moved to New York City, then to New Jersey (Bernardsville) in 1980, to Massachusetts 1984-98, then back to NJ (Summit), before returning to Wichita in 1999. My father grew up on a farm in western Kansas (Hodgeman County, northeast of Dodge City; his birth certificate says Spearville). His folks moved to Wichita in 1942, looking for war work, and he spent his working life in the Boeing factory. My mother grew up in Arkansas and Oklahoma, followed a sister to Kansas, and also found war work in Wichita. They didn't meet until 1948.

During the 1950s, it seems like Kansas and Oklahoma had more tornadoes than the rest of the country put together, with "Tornado Alley" designated as an oval extending from near Dallas to well north of Wichita, and roughly 100 miles east and west. One key historical event was the 1955 Udall tornado of May 25, 1955, which was the deadliest in Kansas history (80 killed, 270 injured, the 1950 census was 410). The tornado was wrapped in heavy rain at night, and there was no warning. I don't remember the event (I was 4), but we often drove to visit relatives in Oklahoma, and our route southeast passed by Udall (about 20 miles from Wichita), so I remember talking about it. A major effort was made after that to organize a severe weather warning system, which became operational by 1960, and has been very effective. Probably the worst tornado to have hit Kansas since was the 2007 Greensburg tornado, which absolutely obliterated a larger town (1574 people in 2000; 777 in 2010), killing 11 or 12, with 63 injured. (Greensburg is about 100 miles west of Wichita. We used to go through it regularly to visit relatives in Kinsley and Dodge City.)

Back during the 1950s-60s, we were very conscious of severe weather forecasts. Wichita television stations competed to hire meteorologists and get the latest radar, and were quick to interrupt regular programming with reports anywhere in their viewing area. We developed a fairly good sense of what the storms look like, where they come from, how they track, etc. I've seen many ominous storms, with hail and/or 60-90 mph winds. But tornadoes are very freaky phenomena. They can do an intense amount of damage, then lift up and skip a spot then come back down again. But they are rare and isolated. I've been through two hurricanes in Boston (or maybe by the time they got that far in they had downgraded), and the big difference is that everybody gets hit by them. Odds are a tornado will miss you.

I only know of one case where it didn't. I had a cousin who had a farmhouse outside Bristow, Oklahoma. He was at work, but his wife and three kids were at home, without a basement, as the house was completely disassembled around them. None of them were hurt, but it was terrifying, and they never lived in a house without a shelter after that (and never came close to getting hit again). Of course, the people who do get hit are the ones who show up on the news. I worry very little about becoming one of them, even as I understand that the odds are non-zero. I don't think I've ever seen a tornado in person (although I've seen clouds with freaky rotation that look like they could drop on your head).

I've heard that tornadoes stay away from cities (although Topeka in 1966 and Joplin in 2011 are counterexamples may beg to disagree; Oklahoma City has been hit many times, but like Wichita it's mostly suffered glancing blows to its outer sprawl). The margins of Wichita, especially the suburbs of Haysville (south) and Andover (east), have seen tornadoes, but nothing has come close to downtown (we live about 1 mile to the northwest; by the way, here's a detailed map of every tornado that has hit Kansas since 1950, which qualifies but doesn't disprove my statement). I've also that tornadoes cannot cross open water — we live between two rivers, and I grew up in a house just northeast of a river (tornadoes generally come from the southwest) — a theory often described as debunked, but I've seen a case where a sandpit lake separated destruction from safety.

Since moving back to Wichita in 1999, I've felt like weather patterns have changed. It seems we're getting fewer tornadoes (although these stats, up to 2009, argue otherwise), while states to the east are getting more than they used to. It's also likely that higher temperatures are producing stronger tornadoes, but I don't know of any solid research on that. Of course, it's also possible that we're getting better detection (both from storm spotters and from more sophisticated radar), and that news reporting has become more national, so we're more aware of what's happening elsewhere.

As for your more personal questions, we live in an old (1920) house which does have a basement (not fully finished, but usable enough). We've retreated to the basement on several occasions. We heard tornado sirens a week ago, but we were just barely on the southwest edge of the zone, and we didn't even get any rain — I looked around, and walked the dog. But we have had two hail storms since we move back in 1999 that were serious enough to replace many roofs in the neighborhood: one in 2007, another in 2025 (which has been a major ordeal for me this year, not so much because the damage was severe as because the insurance company and the contractors have been so difficult to work with). I also got caught out by another hail storm, which did some car damage (minor enough I didn't have it repaired, but lesson learned). Being retired now, and having little I have to do, I often check the weather, and rarely go out if I'm expecting as much as a sprinkle. Same with snow, not that we get much any more. (When I was growing up, we often got heavy snows in November and March, but the peak winter was cold but dry. I don't think we've had a November or March snow since moving in 1999.)