Tornado risk goes beyond the 'Alley'
By Tom Jeffery, Special to CNN, updated 4:51 PM EDT, Tue May 28, 2013
(CNN) -- Increasingly, it feels like there is no reprieve from the assault of natural disasters. Month after month, we go from winter storms to spring floods, to tornado and hail storms, to hurricanes, to wildfires, with an earthquake thrown in every so often just to remind us that the seasons don't always dictate the disasters.
As a hazard scientist, I am in tune daily with the looming threats of nature and the the places that are most susceptible. Many people, however, don't realize the full extent of the risk they face in their own hometowns and neighborhoods. All it really takes is one catastrophe, like Hurricane Sandy, or the tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, to turn everyone's attention to the true reality of hazard risk.
No place in the United States is risk-free. Some regions of the country are more prone to certain events than others, so in those cases it is never a question of "if," but rather a question of "when" and "how severe will it be?"
We hear about earthquakes and wildfires in California, hurricanes in Florida or Louisiana, floods along the Mississippi, and probably most well-known, tornadoes in the Midwestern states that make up "Tornado Alley." But it would be shortsighted to think these regions have cornered the market on natural hazards. A deeper investigation reveals just how widespread these natural disasters can be.
See more @ http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/28/opinion/jeffery-tornado-weather/index.html?eref=igoogledmn_topstories
Two tornado funnels form close to downtown Denver, Colorado, during a thunderstorm.
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Tornado in Colorado mountains is 2nd highest on record
A twister that touched down in Colorado's high-country on Saturday is estimated to be the second-highest tornado ever recorded in the U.S. by the National Weather Service.
There were four different reported sightings of the high-altitude hit the northeast side of Mount Evans — a prominent mountain located about 60 miles west of Denver. The National Weather Service estimates the tornado's touched down at about 11,900 feet in elevation.
Bob Glancy, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Boulder, Colo., told NBC News that this tornado above the treeline is "not unheard of," but "just unusual." Most tornadoes in high terrain are weak, he said.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/30/13035750-tornado-in-colorado-mountains-is-2nd-highest-on-record?lite
First tornado I ever saw:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_tornado
I was 12.
At the time, it was one of the most filmed and photographed tornado, because, frankly, people were totally ignorant about tornadoes. No one really thought they could happen that far north. I knew, though. When I was 4 and living in Winnipeg my parents took me to see some tornado damage. They grew up 5 min north of the Minnesota border and knew all about tornadoes, and taught me about them. Tornadoes fascinated me, so I was thrilled when there was an article about tornadoes and storm chasers in National Geographic in the June '87 issue. Let's just say it came in handy a month later when I saw the swirling clouds dropping and I forced my friends (who were laughing at me saying things like, 'we don't get tornadoes here, that's just in the States...') into the basement. It missed my house by 1/2 mile, went around my town, then turned straight north and headed to Edmonton.
I've seen several since - one of them 8 hours north of Edmonton.
Yes, the darn things follow me.
Apparently Alberta gets quite a few of these per year and Canada is second in number of tornadoes in the world, second only to the US.
Anyhow, yes, natural disasters can happen anywhere, but you aren't going to get a hurricane in Alberta, and major earthquakes are somewhat localized. Tornadoes are one of those things that truly can happen almost anywhere in the world that's not frozen solid.
BTW, in the photo, I'm not seeing funnels - I'm seeing rain shafts, but yeah, Denver gets tornadoes too 
I wasn't living in Alberta at the time, but I followed it closely. I know that green sky you speak of - the night before the '87 tornado we had 2 huge storms pass through - they snuck up on you fast, and looked like giant tsunamis - black with a white crest breaking and swirling...freaky as hell. My mom ushered us into the basement with both storms. The second one, my friends were hanging out in the park across the street as the storm approached and under the white swirling clouds was that sickening green. I've seen it a few times. Oh, wait...I'll show you 2 pictures of a tornado warned storm I took a few years back - I tried to capture the green but it didn't 100% work out:
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I've seen a lot of funnel clouds, but 3 tornadoes for sure. The one in '87, the one up north I didn't know was a tornado at first. I saw a large funnel hanging down, but couldn't see the bottom as it was obscured by trees. I had a friend who went to work in forestry and I was babysitting her daughter. When she dropped off her daughter I told her about the funnel I had seen that morning. She laughed at me and told me I was paranoid - that there were no tornadoes that far north (she had grown up there, she should know, she said). 20 min after she left she gave me a call - apparently there was significant tree damage in a few areas that were reported by some of the workers out in the field - in the exact trajectory I had seen the funnel go.
Another one I saw was travelling to Winnipeg a few years back. We were on the Trans Canada just around Regina (can't remember if it was just before or after), planning to stop at a campground for the night with our 5th wheel. My now-ex was driving and I took a glance in the review mirror and saw a tornado behind us - going in our general direction. OMG I freaked out. My ex made fun of me and told me to stop being paranoid (notice a pattern here? lol) and I told him to look in the review mirror. Suddenly I wasn't so paranoid, haha. He sped up and we left the tornado behind. I wanted to go to a restaurant first - you know a solid building or something buy my ex insisted on going to the campground, where we sat while the storm passed over us (while he made fun of my paranoia, hence why he's now my ex). I was especially worried because my brother was driving behind us, far enough we couldn't see him, so I didn't know where he was. About 30 seconds after the hail started to pelt our 5th wheel, my brother burst in with, "OMG, did you SEE the tornado? It was RIGHT in front of us! I didn't know what the heck to do!"
I've also been in places where tornadoes passed me by by about a few miles here or there and I didn't see them (too much rain, or I was sleeping). I am telling you, they stalk me. I don't think I could live in the coast, though - I would miss my storms.
Good thing I moved away, you might have attracted another one. 
My sister and her family lived in Edmonton at the time, they said they were walking out of Superstore and saw the clouds. She said she'd never seen clouds like that before, the storm was quite unbelievable. It blazed through not far away (97/99th St area as I recall, they were in the Southgate area).
Last year there was the first lightning storm here in many years, people were lined up all along the waterfront taking pictures. The papers were flooded with them as well. It was amusing to me.
