--- title: Giant Walls Could Stop Tornadoes in the Midwest, Says Physicist description: Three anti-tornado walls built across the Midwest could save lives and property by stopping twisters before they begin, physicist says canonical: https://time.com/17021/physicist-claims-giant-walls-could-stop-tornadoes-in-midwest/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-08T20:12:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:39:49.670Z article:section: Science og:title: Giant Walls Could Stop Tornadoes in the Midwest, Says Physicist og:description: Three anti-tornado walls built across the Midwest could save lives and property by stopping twisters before they begin, physicist says og:url: https://time.com/17021/physicist-claims-giant-walls-could-stop-tornadoes-in-midwest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt919a44f23b616eb3/69868496f983e7020f04ca48/98140977.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A storm chaser video taping a very close tornado og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Giant Walls Could Stop Tornadoes in the Midwest, Says Physicist twitter:description: Three anti-tornado walls built across the Midwest could save lives and property by stopping twisters before they begin, physicist says twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt919a44f23b616eb3/69868496f983e7020f04ca48/98140977.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Physicist Claims Giant Walls Could Stop Tornadoes In Midwest by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Mar 8, 2014 8:12 PM UTC  A storm chaser video taping a tornado in South Dakota, March 25, 2010. A storm chaser video taping a tornado in South Dakota, March 25, 2010.Carsten Peter—National Geographic/Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Mar 8, 2014 8:12 PM UTC Three “[Great Walls](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26492720)” built around the United States’ Tornado Alley could eliminate twisters from destroying billions of dollars in property and endangering millions of lives, a physicist has claimed. Professor Rongjia Tao of Temple University, Philadelphia unveiled a proposal this week calling for the construction of three 1,000-foot barriers up to 100 miles long, which would act like hill ranges and soften winds before tornadoes could form, the BBC reports. The $16.9 billion plan would call for the faux hill ranges in North Dakota, along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma, and in Texas and Louisiana, ostensibly saving billions of dollars in damage every year, Tao said. The walls would not shelter towns, he said, but instead would soften the streams of hot southern and cold northern air that form twisters when they clash in the first place. But critics scoffed at Tao’s proposals. Leading tornado experts pointed to areas that are already protected by hill ranges the size of the barriers Tao is proposing, yet still have plenty of tornados, like parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. And even if the plan did work, it would create more problems than it would solve, scientists said, by creating catastrophic weather side effects. “Everybody I know is of 100% agreement – this is a poorly conceived idea,” Professor Joshua Wurman of the Center for Severe Weather Research. “From what I can gather his concept of how tornadoes form is fundamentally flawed. Meteorologists cringe when they hear about ‘clashing hot and cold air’. It’s a lot more complicated than that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/17021/physicist-claims-giant-walls-could-stop-tornadoes-in-midwest/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/17021/physicist-claims-giant-walls-could-stop-tornadoes-in-midwest/"},"headline":"Physicist Claims Giant Walls Could Stop Tornadoes In Midwest","datePublished":"2014-03-08T20:12:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:39:49.670Z","description":"Tornado barriers 100 miles long and 1,000 feet high could save lives and property by stopping twisters before they begin, says Professor Rongjia Tao of Temple University in Philadelphia -- but critics aren't so sure","url":"https://time.com/17021/physicist-claims-giant-walls-could-stop-tornadoes-in-midwest/","keywords":["extreme weather","natural disaster","Tornadoes"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt919a44f23b616eb3/69868496f983e7020f04ca48/98140977.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt919a44f23b616eb3/69868496f983e7020f04ca48/98140977.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A storm chaser video taping a very close tornado","caption":"A storm chaser video taping a very close tornado","creditText":"Carsten Peter—National Geographic/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/extreme-weather/","name":"extreme weather"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/17021/physicist-claims-giant-walls-could-stop-tornadoes-in-midwest/","name":"Physicist Claims Giant Walls Could Stop Tornadoes In Midwest"}}]}] ```