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36 Travel Magazines and Websites That Pay Freelance Writers

by Farrah Daniel | Aug 25, 2020

When you dream about your writing career, do you picture yourself scribbling in notebooks about your world travels, hoping to combine your wanderlust with your creative flair to earn money for your adventures? 

If you have travel stories to tell, it’s time to stop dreaming!

Lots of markets are willing to pay for your stories about destinations, tips and your experiences on the road.   

Table of Contents

Get paid to write about travel.

Don’t think travel writing is limited to travel-specific magazines or travel websites. Plenty of local and regional publications are actively looking for travel stories, even for destinations right in your own backyard.

Some writers envision travel writing jobs as sharing tales of globetrotting and exploring the ancient artifacts of Greece, or wandering Machu Picchu. But that’s only a small part of travel writing.

Publications are often even more eager to snap up stories about the mountain trails an hour away that make for easy weekend adventures or the nearby metropolitan city that has a new art exhibit and great restaurant scene.

Publications that offer freelance travel writing jobs

While full-time travel writer jobs can be hard to come by, it’s more common for freelancers to sell travel writing to magazines and other outlets. To get you started, we compiled 36 paying international and domestic travel markets. Click on each title to access submission guidelines or editorial contacts.

So let’s get to it! Here are dozens of publications that provide opportunities for travel writing jobs:

1. Matador Network

Matador Travel seeks original writing, photo and video contributions “that speak to the adventures, cultures, and identities of people around the world.” It encourages  creators to join their Matador Creators Community to find the latest journalist opportunities. 

While the website does not list a specific payment, Who Pays Writers reports payments ranging from $0.03 to $0.20 per word.

2. ROVA 

Want to share your thrilling stories of life on the open road? The site often looks for stories featuring road trips, RVs and adventure. Most of their readers travel the roads of North America and want insightful stories about the continent.  

Submit an article or photo essay and earn $200 upon acceptance at the ROVA Magazine website. 

3. Outpost Magazine

Outpost Magazine looks for submissions about travel, adventure and culture. It is looking for longform travel stories, travel guides, and stunning photography from writers anywhere in the world. The publication is Canadian and it has a “Canadian slant.”

Online stories typically range from 800 to 1,500 words, 2,000 to 4,000 for print and features can be up to about 5,000 words; pay varies.

4. Wanderlust

This British travel magazine publishes destination features up to 2,200 words, along with shorter dispatches, travel guides, round-up features and more.  Pay is typically £220 (about $275) per 1,000 words, but rates vary.

Write travel articles about destinations, activities and experiences for GoNOMAD, but take note that this website seeks pieces that meet its style and focus.

If you want to write for GoNOMAD, its guidelines say, “No glossy magazine fluff, no standard guidebook descriptions, no promotional hype.” Articles are typically 1,200 to 2,000 words, and a detailed list of locations and topics the publication is seeking is available in its guidelines .

Pay is $25 per article.

6. Travel + Leisure Magazine

While this magazine doesn’t have specific submission guidelines online, Freedom with Writing says this magazine is written 95 percent by freelancers on assignment and pays up to $1 a word. Submit your pitches to [email protected] .

7. Arizona Highways Magazine

Arizona travelers rely on this magazine for destination-based ideas, and the publication also encourages travelers to come to Arizona.

Check its guidelines to see when queries (typically on specific locations) are accepted. This period is often in March. Pay varies.

8. Canadian Geographic Magazine

Write about Canada’s people, frontiers, places and issues in this magazine that comes out six times a year. There are no formal guidelines to follow, but you might want to familiarize yourself with their content and tone to get an idea of what they’re looking for.

It buys about 30 features a year and pay varies.

9. DesertUSA Magazine

Desert lovers can write all about the North American desert in this publication targeting those who love the natural and cultural history of the region. Wildlife, adventure, history, desert lore, and travel stories are in demand.

Articles with photos receive payment of $50.

10. Escapees Magazine

RV travelers with stories to tell and wisdom to share might consider submitting to Escapees Magazine, which specializes in RV lifestyle.The publication only accepts fully written articles on spec.

They pay $100 to $200 for feature submissions and $50 to $100 for short fillers.

11. The Penny Hoarder

Penny Hoarder seeks stories about traveling on a budget from Disneyworld to Hawaiian cruises. Most of their readers are “relaxed and excited about earning — and saving — money,” so focus on how your post will help readers save, earn or grow their money.

They pay $75 for a 700 to 900-word article.

12. KANSAS! Magazine

Celebrate the wonders of Kansas with this publication offered by Kansas Tourism and partner organizations. Pitch a 400- to 800-word nonfiction story that has the potential for interesting photography and reflects the state positively. 

Most readers are locals over the age of 50. Payment varies.

13. Los Angeles Times Travel

The travel section of the Los Angeles Times looks for pieces with a strong visual component. Trips must be taken in the previous two years and writers must follow specific ethical guidelines, including not receiving comped travel.

Print stories vary from $200 to $750; online-only stories generally pay $500; Weekend Escapes pay $200, plus additional money for original photos.

14. MotorHome Magazine

This publication for RV enthusiasts wants travel stories covering all aspects of the RV lifestyle, including travel destinations, activities and events and more.

It pays up to $900 for technical manuscripts with photos, and less for shorter pieces.

15. Oregon Coast Magazine

Write about Oregon’s stunning coastal region and tell stories about everything from day-long driving tours to restaurant features and historical sites.

Payment ranges from $100 to $650 depending on story type and word count.

16. Pathfinders Travel

A travel magazine for people for color, Pathfinders Travel looks for fresh ideas and stories about travel and the travel industry. 

Stories typically pay $150.

17. Road and Travel

Road and Travel specializes in automotive, travel and personal safety articles, including articles that appeal to female business travelers. Travel articles should relate to hotels and resorts, spas, airlines and airline rules, bed & breakfasts, destination reviews, places to go and things to do and much more.

The magazine pays up to $100 per article.

18. Sunset Magazine

This magazine focuses on 13 Western states and wants “take action” travel ideas as well as destinations that offer a variety of experiences and “soft adventures.”

Pay varies.

19. Trailer Life Magazine

This publication accepts stories about the RV lifestyle, from travel destinations to outdoor recreation. Payment ranges from $100 for a small piece to $700 for a technical feature with photos.

20. Transitions Abroad Magazine

This publication for people who live abroad is looking for a variety of pieces about working, living and studying abroad, as well as cultural and culinary travel. Heads up: They’re currently primarily seeking stories about online learning to teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).

Pay is typically $75 to $150 for a 1,250-word article for the web.

21. World Nomads

World Nomads looks for travel articles that fall under these categories: love, fear, discovery, connection and transformation. Pitch a personal, authentic story about a life-changing journey or experience.

They pay 50 cents per word for stories between 600 to 800 words. Payment is made after publication.

22. Alaska Airlines Magazine

This monthly in-flight magazine for Alaska Airlines seeks business, travel, technology and personality articles, among other topics.

Rates range from $150 to $700 depending on the topic, length and treatment of an article.

23. WestJet Magazine

This airline’s Canadian lifestyle-travel publication wants stories ranging from insider tips and service-oriented advice to local cuisine and features.

Payment varies.

24. Via Magazine

The American Automobile Association publishes Via Magazine, which focuses on auto travel out West.

Payment varies and you can request guidelines by emailing [email protected] .

25. Backpacker

This magazine covers North American destinations. Pitches must cover foot-based travel, wilderness or backcountry experiences and advice.

A feature story’s word count varies from 1,500 to 5,000 words, although there are shorter assignments available from 100 to 1,200 words. They accept pitches via email and require a signed contract which specifies the payment amount and payment terms. 

Pay varies, but Who Pays Writers reports rates up to 50 cents per word.

26. New Mexico Magazine

Showcase New Mexico’s rich environment and culture through this publication of the New Mexico Tourism Department. One-third of readers live in the state and the out-of-state readers typically visit twice a year or so. The magazine looks for a lively editorial mix, with articles that show readers things they can do in New Mexico.

Pay is typically 35 to 40 cents per word.

27. Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is an award-winning website that gives travelers the tools they need to plan their next trip such as in-depth information on destinations, things to do and travel advice. They are looking for freelance contributors who want to write digital content, travel news and guidebooks.

Rates vary, but Who Pays Writers reports a rate of 30 cents per word.

28. Texas Highways

Texas’ official travel magazine reaches 500,000 readers in 54 countries each month. It is looking for pieces featuring “scenery, history, small towns, and out-of-the-way places.”

Pays 50 cents per word.

29. Common Ground Magazine 

Common Ground Magazine’s readers are from Western Canada. They accept articles about the environment, health, wellness, transformational travel and personal growth.

Submissions usually range from 600 to 1,500 words are accepted, but they can accept articles up to 2,500 words. Rates are 10 cents per word.  

30. International Living Magazine

This website and monthly magazine is a comprehensive resource that helps readers find their dream retirement overseas. It wants stories from expats and anyone who can inform their readers about ways to stretch their dollars and simplify their lives.

Pay is up to $150 for website stories; print stories pay $225 for 900 words and $350 for 1,600 words, plus $50 per photo; 600-word daily postcards pay $100.

31. Journey

Journey is AAA Washington’s award-winning magazine featuring “inspiring stories on travel, technology, traffic safety, insurance and member benefits.” 

Who Pays Writers reports a rate of 30 cents per word, but this pub welcomes you to pitch your own pay rate along with your submission. 

32. New Worlder 

This magazine isn’t interested in a taco that has the most buzz — but it definitely wants to know why it has the most buzz. Pitch stories with strong angles about travel, food, culture and people for an American and Latin American audience.

While pay is confirmed, no specific rates are provided in the guidelines .

33. Odyssa Magazine

Freelance submissions are accepted each quarterly issue, though editors are particularly looking for travel pieces in the form of a guide, personal travel experience or reflection of how travel affects our thoughts and who we are.

Pay is $30 per article up to 1,500 words.

Note: Odyssa Magazine is taking a publishing hiatus through Summer 2020 due to COVD-19 and will return in the fall with fresh, new content. 

34. HitTheRoad

To get the green light, write and pitch a story about the adventures, cultures and amazing experiences of road trips in Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. Emphasis is put on experiences in rented campervans and motorhomes, but a journey on the open road is what matters most. 

Standard payment is a link to your site and $50 depending on article type and length.

35. Cruising World

Cruising World welcomes author inquiries and unsolicited manuscripts at all times, but make sure to include photos with your submission. Feature-length articles shouldn’t exceed 2,000 words, and non-features (technical articles and general interest) are capped at 1,200 words.

Payment varies depending on the type of article: $25 to $200 for short, newsworthy items and $300 to $1,000 for technical and feature articles.

Write your own travel book

An alternative to finding travel writing jobs is to simply go ahead and publish your own travel book . If you have written over 10,000 words for a certain travel journey or advice, you could easily turn that into a whole book to sell.

Curious to learn how? Check out this program: “ How to write a book “.

The original version of this story was written by Kristen Pope . We updated the post so it’s more useful for our readers.

Photo via natalia_maroz/ Shutterstock  

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25 of the Best Travel Magazines

While traveling is exciting, learning about new places and seeing beautiful photos of destinations from around the world is exciting too. There are a number of ways to find new places to visit or to be inspired by the stories and experiences from others, but travel magazines are among the best options.

Thankfully, there are some very good travel magazines that are perfect for feeding your hunger for travel-related content and inspiration. Here, we’ll showcase the best travel magazines you should be following. Some of them have moved to digital-only publications, but the majority of them are still available in a printed magazine if that’s what you prefer (if they’re currently digital-only, that will be specified below).

Some of these magazines cover travel in general, while others take a more niche-specific approach. Check out the descriptions to see which ones are likely to interest you.

Best Travel Magazines

Subscribe to any of these travel publications to read and learn about destinations and your favorite types of travel.

Afar, launched in 2009, is one of the leading travel magazines. Although it covers destinations from around the world, its focus is experiential travel. It was created to inspire and guide those who travel the world seeking to connect with its people and experience their cultures. It features beautiful photos and engaging stories that are sure to inspire wanderlust.

Travel + Leisure

Travel + Leisure has been in print since 1937, and under the Travel + Leisure name since 1971. It’s another travel industry leader that should be on every avid traveler’s reading list. The “World’s Best” awards issue is an annual highlight.

Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast Traveler is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine that has won many awards. If you enjoy luxury travel, this is the magazine for you. Even if you don’t travel in luxury, you’ll appreciate the photos and travel stories, as well as details about particular destinations.

National Geographic

National Geographic provides you with everything you need to know about scenery, history, and traveling to all ends of the earth. National Geographic is most well known for its award-winning travel photojournalism.

Wanderlust Magazine

Wanderlust is an award-winning British travel magazine with a focus on unique and enriching travel experiences. You’ll find trip inspiration, ideas, tips, reviews, competitions, and celebrity interviews.

Cruise Travel

Edited for people who are interested in learning about or taking a cruise vacation. Content includes features on cruise ships, ports-of-call, cruise itineraries, cruise guidelines, cruise/tour combinations, sea/air packages, travel products, related shore facilities, and activities.

Cruising World

Cruise World is another magazine focused specifically on cruise travel. If you’re a frequent cruiser or looking to plan a cruise, this is an excellent option.

National Parks Magazine

If you enjoy nature and visiting national parks, then you won’t want to miss National Parks Magazine. As you would expect, you’ll find travel photos and plenty of information about the most epic parks in the United States.

Caribbean Living

Caribbean Living is a luxury lifestyle magazine that exclusively covers Caribbean islands. If you frequently travel to Caribbean destinations or have a home on one of the islands, this is an excellent choice for you. Each issue is packed with interesting and insightful stories, as well as beautiful pictures.

Food & Travel

Food & Travel magazine combines two of our favorite topics. Wherever you’re going, food is likely to be an important part of your trip. If you enjoy trying food from every destination you visit, you’ll appreciate the content that you’ll find in this magazine.

The indispensable magazine for today’s yachtsman, providing power and sailing enthusiasts authoritative evaluations of new boats, gear, and equipment. Coverage of cruising, traveling, and racing destinations.

Destination

Destination is another niche-specific publication that focuses specifically on Caribbean destinations. You’ll learn about places to stay, things to do, and towns that you might not have been aware of. They also cover style and culture as well as food and drink.

Global Traveler

Global Traveler is a travel magazine that provides information, inspiration, and stories related to locations all around the world. If you’re looking for a good overall travel magazine to provide ideas and keep you up-to-date, this is an excellent option.

Geographical

Founded in 1935, Geographic is one of the oldest British travel magazines. Geographical brings the rich diversity of the world’s culture, wildlife, and places into its readers’ living rooms. The magazine is informative, authoritative, and educational, covering a wide range of subject areas all illustrated with superb high-quality photography.

Outside Magazine

For 35 years OUTSIDE magazine has been the intelligent person’s guide to the always exhilarating world outside. Award-winning writers, great stories of adventure, tips on the latest gear, where & when to go for active travelers.

American Road

Explore America’s back roads with American Road magazine. Whether you travel in an RV, on a Harley, or in a minivan, you’ll find road trips, maps, diners, motels, and roadside attractions in every issue. This is an excellent resource for anyone planning a road trip.

RV Magazine

RV magazine covers travel from the perspective of those who travel in the comfort of an RV. You’ll find general travel information as well as some tips and details that are especially relevant for RV travel. You’ll also find trailer and mobile home reviews, articles about gear and products for RV travel, safety and maintenance tips, info about RV parks, and more.

Outdoor Photographer

Outdoor Photographer is a landscape and nature photography magazine, but it’s an excellent read for travelers who enjoy photography. You’ll find articles (and of course, amazing photos) featuring destinations around the world, including the iconic as well as the unknown. You’ll learn a lot about some of the best photography destinations you can put into your upcoming travel plans.

Online Travel Magazines

All of the publications listed above still produce a printed travel magazine. Of course, many publications have gone exclusively to digital versions because of the costs related to printing and shipping. In this section, we’ll cover online travel magazines that are excellent options (much more than just a blog) for reading on your tablet or computer.

Budget Travel

Budget Travel (now digital-only) helps savvy consumers get the most out of every day, every destination, and every dollar. This used to be a popular print-based magazine (and one of my personal favorites), but now the content is only available digitally. You’ll find details about locations all around the world, so it’s a great overall option.

If you enjoy beaches and island travel, this award-winning and spectacularly visual travel magazine is a highlight that you won’t want to miss. ISLANDS (now digital-only) focuses on places we all dream about: islands around the world.

Wander is a digital-only travel magazine with a unique focus on wellness. If you’re interested in wellness tourism, this is the best resource for you.

Pathfinders Travel

Pathfinders Travel (digital-only) is the leading leisure travel publication for the Black travel enthusiast. Its affluent, educated and sophisticated readers have a thirst for information on family, romantic, and weekend destinations.

Backpacker (digital-only) is the leading outdoor adventure magazine, dedicated to helping readers enjoy everything nature has to offer. Every issue is packed with hands-on information on how to buy the best gear, how to build strength and endurance, how to find great hikes close to home, and how to enjoy the outdoor experience.

National Park Trips

From the editors of Outside magazine, National Park Trips (digital-only) is an outstanding resource for information and inspiration related to America’s national park system. You’ll find travel guides, information for road trips, and of course, plenty of stunning photos from your favorite parks.

Cabin Life (digital-only) covers cabins, cottages, lake homes, and lodges. Get ideas, information, and inspiration for your vacation home with the award-winning Cabin Life magazine. If you have a getaway or dream of having one, Cabin Life magazine is for you.

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The Moscow Metro Museum of Art: 10 Must-See Stations

There are few times one can claim having been on the subway all afternoon and loving it, but the Moscow Metro provides just that opportunity.  While many cities boast famous public transport systems—New York’s subway, London’s underground, San Salvador’s chicken buses—few warrant hours of exploration.  Moscow is different: Take one ride on the Metro, and you’ll find out that this network of railways can be so much more than point A to B drudgery.

The Metro began operating in 1935 with just thirteen stations, covering less than seven miles, but it has since grown into the world’s third busiest transit system ( Tokyo is first ), spanning about 200 miles and offering over 180 stops along the way.  The construction of the Metro began under Joseph Stalin’s command, and being one of the USSR’s most ambitious building projects, the iron-fisted leader instructed designers to create a place full of svet (radiance) and svetloe budushchee (a radiant future), a palace for the people and a tribute to the Mother nation.

Consequently, the Metro is among the most memorable attractions in Moscow.  The stations provide a unique collection of public art, comparable to anything the city’s galleries have to offer and providing a sense of the Soviet era, which is absent from the State National History Museum.  Even better, touring the Metro delivers palpable, experiential moments, which many of us don’t get standing in front of painting or a case of coins.

Though tours are available , discovering the Moscow Metro on your own provides a much more comprehensive, truer experience, something much less sterile than following a guide.  What better place is there to see the “real” Moscow than on mass transit: A few hours will expose you to characters and caricatures you’ll be hard-pressed to find dining near the Bolshoi Theater.  You become part of the attraction, hear it in the screech of the train, feel it as hurried commuters brush by: The Metro sucks you beneath the city and churns you into the mix.

With the recommendations of our born-and-bred Muscovite students, my wife Emma and I have just taken a self-guided tour of what some locals consider the top ten stations of the Moscow Metro. What most satisfied me about our Metro tour was the sense of adventure .  I loved following our route on the maps of the wagon walls as we circled the city, plotting out the course to the subsequent stops; having the weird sensation of being underground for nearly four hours; and discovering the next cavern of treasures, playing Indiana Jones for the afternoon, piecing together fragments of Russia’s mysterious history.  It’s the ultimate interactive museum.

Top Ten Stations (In order of appearance)

Kievskaya station.

Kievskaya Station went public in March of 1937, the rails between it and Park Kultury Station being the first to cross the Moscow River.  Kievskaya is full of mosaics depicting aristocratic scenes of Russian life, with great cameo appearances by Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin.  Each work has a Cyrillic title/explanation etched in the marble beneath it; however, if your Russian is rusty, you can just appreciate seeing familiar revolutionary dates like 1905 ( the Russian Revolution ) and 1917 ( the October Revolution ).

Mayakovskaya Station

Mayakovskaya Station ranks in my top three most notable Metro stations. Mayakovskaya just feels right, done Art Deco but no sense of gaudiness or pretention.  The arches are adorned with rounded chrome piping and create feeling of being in a jukebox, but the roof’s expansive mosaics of the sky are the real showstopper.  Subjects cleverly range from looking up at a high jumper, workers atop a building, spires of Orthodox cathedrals, to nimble aircraft humming by, a fleet of prop planes spelling out CCCP in the bluest of skies.

Novoslobodskaya Station

Novoslobodskaya is the Metro’s unique stained glass station.  Each column has its own distinctive panels of colorful glass, most of them with a floral theme, some of them capturing the odd sailor, musician, artist, gardener, or stenographer in action.  The glass is framed in Art Deco metalwork, and there is the lovely aspect of discovering panels in the less frequented haunches of the hall (on the trackside, between the incoming staircases).  Novosblod is, I’ve been told, the favorite amongst out-of-town visitors.

Komsomolskaya Station

Komsomolskaya Station is one of palatial grandeur.  It seems both magnificent and obligatory, like the presidential palace of a colonial city.  The yellow ceiling has leafy, white concrete garland and a series of golden military mosaics accenting the tile mosaics of glorified Russian life.  Switching lines here, the hallway has an Alice-in-Wonderland feel, impossibly long with decorative tile walls, culminating in a very old station left in a remarkable state of disrepair, offering a really tangible glimpse behind the palace walls.

Dostoevskaya Station

Dostoevskaya is a tribute to the late, great hero of Russian literature .  The station at first glance seems bare and unimpressive, a stark marble platform without a whiff of reassembled chips of tile.  However, two columns have eerie stone inlay collages of scenes from Dostoevsky’s work, including The Idiot , The Brothers Karamazov , and Crime and Punishment.   Then, standing at the center of the platform, the marble creates a kaleidoscope of reflections.  At the entrance, there is a large, inlay portrait of the author.

Chkalovskaya Station

Chkalovskaya does space Art Deco style (yet again).  Chrome borders all.  Passageways with curvy overhangs create the illusion of walking through the belly of a chic, new-age spacecraft.  There are two (kos)mosaics, one at each end, with planetary subjects.  Transferring here brings you above ground, where some rather elaborate metalwork is on display.  By name similarity only, I’d expected Komsolskaya Station to deliver some kosmonaut décor; instead, it was Chkalovskaya that took us up to the space station.

Elektrozavodskaya Station

Elektrozavodskaya is full of marble reliefs of workers, men and women, laboring through the different stages of industry.  The superhuman figures are round with muscles, Hollywood fit, and seemingly undeterred by each Herculean task they respectively perform.  The station is chocked with brass, from hammer and sickle light fixtures to beautiful, angular framework up the innards of the columns.  The station’s art pieces are less clever or extravagant than others, but identifying the different stages of industry is entertaining.

Baumanskaya Statio

Baumanskaya Station is the only stop that wasn’t suggested by the students.  Pulling in, the network of statues was just too enticing: Out of half-circle depressions in the platform’s columns, the USSR’s proud and powerful labor force again flaunts its success.  Pilots, blacksmiths, politicians, and artists have all congregated, posing amongst more Art Deco framing.  At the far end, a massive Soviet flag dons the face of Lenin and banners for ’05, ’17, and ‘45.  Standing in front of the flag, you can play with the echoing roof.

Ploshchad Revolutsii Station

Novokuznetskaya Station

Novokuznetskaya Station finishes off this tour, more or less, where it started: beautiful mosaics.  This station recalls the skyward-facing pieces from Mayakovskaya (Station #2), only with a little larger pictures in a more cramped, very trafficked area.  Due to a line of street lamps in the center of the platform, it has the atmosphere of a bustling market.  The more inventive sky scenes include a man on a ladder, women picking fruit, and a tank-dozer being craned in.  The station’s also has a handsome black-and-white stone mural.

Here is a map and a brief description of our route:

Start at (1)Kievskaya on the “ring line” (look for the squares at the bottom of the platform signs to help you navigate—the ring line is #5, brown line) and go north to Belorusskaya, make a quick switch to the Dark Green/#2 line, and go south one stop to (2)Mayakovskaya.  Backtrack to the ring line—Brown/#5—and continue north, getting off at (3)Novosblodskaya and (4)Komsolskaya.  At Komsolskaya Station, transfer to the Red/#1 line, go south for two stops to Chistye Prudy, and get on the Light Green/#10 line going north.  Take a look at (5)Dostoevskaya Station on the northern segment of Light Green/#10 line then change directions and head south to (6)Chkalovskaya, which offers a transfer to the Dark Blue/#3 line, going west, away from the city center.  Have a look (7)Elektroskaya Station before backtracking into the center of Moscow, stopping off at (8)Baumskaya, getting off the Dark Blue/#3 line at (9)Ploschad Revolyutsii.  Change to the Dark Green/#2 line and go south one stop to see (10)Novokuznetskaya Station.

Check out our new Moscow Indie Travel Guide , book a flight to Moscow and read 10 Bars with Views Worth Blowing the Budget For

Jonathon Engels, formerly a patron saint of misadventure, has been stumbling his way across cultural borders since 2005 and is currently volunteering in the mountains outside of Antigua, Guatemala.  For more of his work, visit his website and blog .

Photo credits:   SergeyRod , all others courtesy of the author and may not be used without permission

Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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U.S. tourist faces 12 years in prison after taking ammunition to Turks and Caicos

An Oklahoma man faces up to 12 years in prison on a Caribbean island after customs officials found ammunition in his luggage.

Ryan Watson traveled to Turks and Caicos with his wife, Valerie, to celebrate his 40th birthday on April 7. They went with two friends who had also turned 40.

The vacation came to an abrupt end when airport staff members found a zip-close bag containing bullets in the couple's carry-on luggage. Watson said it was hunting ammunition he had accidentally brought with him — but under a strict law in Turks and Caicos, a court may still impose a mandatory 12-year sentence.

"They were hunting ammunition rounds that I use for whitetail deer," Watson told NBC Boston in an interview conducted last week that aired after their first court appearance Tuesday.

"I recognized them, and I thought, 'Oh, man, what a bonehead mistake that I had no idea that those were in there,'" he said.

The couple were arrested and charged with possession of ammunition. Authorities seized their passports and explained the penalties they faced.

Valerie Watson said in the interview: "When I heard that, I immediately was terrified, because I was like we can't both be in prison for 12 years. We have kids at home, and this is such an innocent mistake."

The charges against her were dropped, and she returned home to Oklahoma City on Tuesday after the court hearing to be reunited with her two young children.

"Our goal is to get Ryan home, because we can’t be a family without Dad," she said.

The couple also spoke about the financial burden of a much longer-than-planned trip. "This is something that we may never recover from," Ryan Watson said.

The U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas issued a warning to travelers in September about a law that strongly prohibits possession of firearms or ammunition in Turks and Caicos, an overseas British territory southeast of the Bahamas that is a popular vacation spot.

It said: "We wish to remind all travelers that declaring a weapon in your luggage with an airline carrier does not grant permission to bring the weapon into TCI [Turks and Caicos Islands] and will result in your arrest."

The embassy added: "If you bring a firearm or ammunition into TCI, we will not be able to secure your release from custody."

The embassy and the government in Turks and Caicos did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The same thing happened to another American, Bryan Hagerich, of Pennsylvania, who was arrested after ammunition was found in his luggage before he tried to board a flight out of Turks and Caicos in February. He said he accidentally left it in his bag.

Hagerich was on a family vacation with his wife and two young children but has now been in the country for 70 days. He spent eight days in prison before he posted bail.

"It’s incredibly scary. You know, you just don’t know what the next day may bring — you know, what path this may take," Hagerich told NBC Boston.

"You know, it’s certainly a lot different than packing your bags and going away with your family for a few days. It’s been the worst 70 days of my life," he said.

Hagerich, once a professional baseball player, was drafted by the Florida Marlins in the MLB 2007 June amateur draft from the University of Delaware.

His case goes to trial May 3.

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

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Every Chef I Talked to Loves This Tortilla Press

If you’ve ever had a made-from-scratch tortilla fresh off a comal, you understand: No premade grocery-store tortilla can possibly compare. Whether it’s a fragrant, slightly sweet corn tortilla or a still warm, slightly nutty flour tortilla, the difference between the homemade kind and the discs sitting in plastic on the shelf is so vast they may as well be totally separate food groups.

The most essential tool to making fresh tortillas at home is a good tortilla press. Sure, you can use a rolling pin or a wine bottle to flatten them out individually, but as I found out firsthand when I took up tortilla-making as a pandemic hobby, hand-rolling each of them gets old fast, particularly since I rarely made tortillas in batches of fewer than a dozen. Not only is a tortilla press much quicker at flattening the masa for tortillas into a pliable circular shape ready for griddling, it helps ensure that the thickness of your tortillas is consistent, which means that they’ll cook more evenly. Plus, you can use it to make other flatbreads at home, like roti, parathas, naan, or pita. I’ve even used mine to flatten pie dough.

A press is a pretty simple gadget. It’s essentially two flat plates attached with a hinge that allow you to put something in between them. You use a handle to press down on the contents inside, applying even pressure to flatten them. (Typically, you line the press with a plastic bag or parchment paper to prevent the tortilla dough from sticking, another lesson I learned the hard way.) When I started looking into tortilla presses, I learned that there are two major genres. The first is a circular press, usually made out of aluminum or cast iron. The second are square presses, usually also made of metal, though sometimes wood.

One square press stood out in my research: a jewel-colored, sleek, metal number that popped up repeatedly among the Mexican chefs I follow on social media. I noticed it in the Instagram Stories of Bricia Lopez , co-owner of Guelaguetza in Los Angeles and author of Asada , and in the kitchen behind Mi Cocina writer Rick Martinez in his videos of his kitchen in Mazatlán. When I reached out to Martinez to ask, he confirmed: It was the Doña Rosa Tortilla Press, an artisan-made press from Oaxaca distributed in the U.S. by the masa harina brand Masienda.

“I love this press so much,” Martinez told me. “I have two of them. It is so beautiful that it makes me want to make tortillas from scratch just so I can pull it out and use it.”

The press is made out of powder-coated rolled steel, which means that not only is it an appealing pop of color for your kitchen — it comes in a cobalt blue, a seafoam green, a bright, poppy yellow, white, and black — it also is a serious piece of equipment. The weight of the press, Martinez explained, is key. It means that it doesn’t wiggle back and forth while you use it. “I love the heft of it. It is virtually indestructible, and lasts forever, which is why a lot of restaurants and taco stands in Mexico use them,” Martinez said. (Plus, when Mi Cocina came out, the brand released an edition in pink to match the cover of the book.)

It’s not just Martinez, though. As I reached out to chefs for their thoughts on the best tortilla press, time and time again, I got the same answer: the Doña Rosa . Ana Castro, the New Orleans–based chef-owner of Acamaya, is also a huge fan. “They are the real deal; they are made in Mexico by Doña Rosa, she’s a master of her craft and has been producing them for longer than I have been alive,” Castro said. Plus, she appreciates that with the Doña Rosa , unlike the traditional circular cast-iron models, you can adjust the thickness of the tortilla that you’re serving. “This tortilla press is the last one you’ll ever buy,” Castro said.

It’s also the press that Chef Fermín Núñez uses in his masa-centric restaurants in Austin. “Masienda’s Doña Rosa Tortilla Press is what we use at both of our restaurants, Suerte and Este, to make fresh corn tortillas daily,” Nunez explained. “A good tortilla press should be high quality and have some weight to it. Masienda’s has both, which is exactly why we use theirs in the restaurants.”

When I got my hands on a Doña Rosa press to try it out, I had to agree. (I chose the seafoam-green one.) Though I am far from a master at making tortillas, the Doña Rosa tortilla press was a joy to use. It’s sturdy enough that I never worry about it slipping on the counter, and it quickly and evenly flattens masa into discs. The adjustable-thickness option makes it particularly versatile for use with other flatbreads, too. And it’s a pleasing object to have in my kitchen — always at the ready, reminding me that fresh tortillas aren’t that far away.

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This Quaint Town in Portugal Was Just Named the Best Place to Invest in Europe — and It Has Stunning Beaches

Lush pine forests, cobblestone streets, endless ocean views, and low real estate prices await in this quaint community in northern Portugal.

Xurxo Lobato/Getty Images

Portugal is on everyone's mind these days. The country's sunny weather , many beaches , and affordable cost of living have made it a popular choice for retirees and digital nomads. However, as is often the case, real estate prices in some of its most sought-after regions, like the capital, Lisbon and Algarve , have soared. But that doesn't mean you should give up on your dream of owning property in Portugal.

A new report by International Living ranked the small, under-the-radar- town of Caminha the best place to invest in real estate in Europe for its value and growth potential. 

The community is located in the northwest along the mouth of the Minho River, which separates Portugal from Spain, and is home to about 16,000 residents. International Living gave Caminha a perfect score of 10 in the relative value category and nine for quality of life and stability.

"Caminha, which is only separated from Spain by a river, completely charmed me," Ronan McMahon, founder of Real Estate Trend Alert and author of International Living's Global Real Estate Index, told Travel + Leisure . "It has a beautiful Old Town surrounded by a verdant and bucolic countryside, with mountains, rivers, forests, and fields overflowing with brightly colored flowers and fruit trees heavy with their bounty. And then there are the stunning Atlantic beaches."

The ancient town has plenty of character, with fountains, churches, and other buildings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. And it's easily accessible from Porto, which is just an hour and 15 minutes south, providing access to an international airport. 

Jeff Opdyke, International Living's personal finance editor, called Caminha a "holdover of Portugal before tourism and modernity swept over Lisbon, the Algarve, and Porto," where affordable real estate is still the norm. 

Potential buyers can find apartments downtown for as low as $150,000 and stand-alone houses for $280,000 .

And while Caminha is the best place to invest in Europe, another destination took the top prize for global real estate value: Mexico's Los Cabos. International Living ranked first with almost perfect scores in categories such as income potential, climate, and international appeal. Riviera Maya and Estepona in Spain, a town in the country's famous Costa del Sol region, are tied for the third place.

You can see the full ranking at internationaliving.com .

Science | April 26, 2024

Ten Amazing Facts About Tornadoes, Explained

To prepare you for the movie “Twisters,” we’ve compiled some jaw-dropping details about the powerful phenomenon

Catherine Duncan

Staff Contributor

As looming thunderstorm clouds spit out baseball-sized hail and torrential rain, a narrow whirlwind of air stretches its way toward the ground, signaling the arrival of one of nature’s most violent phenomena: a tornado.

Also known as twisters, these violent cyclones can reach wind speeds of 300 miles per hour and blaze a path of destruction that can last from mere seconds to several hours . While most people flee or take shelter at the sight of these alarming conditions, others dive headfirst into them. Storm chasers, people who get dangerously close to extreme weather events, sometimes for scientific research, jump at the chance to pursue the ever-unpredictable tornado.

The 1996 disaster classic Twister follows a group of these daring storm chasers, a university professor and her team of students who rush toward an outbreak of severe twisters sweeping Oklahoma. Their goal: deploy a revolutionary weather alert device, aptly named “Dorothy,” within the heart of multiple tornado systems to track and possibly tame the forces of nature. After a series of disastrous attempts to deploy their invention within multiple cyclones, a final, massive tornado rips through the area. In the nick of time, the team successfully sets up their device in the twister’s center and collects crucial data.

The highly awaited sequel Twisters sees the continuation of this research nearly two decades later, with a new generation of storm chasers and technology. The story’s hesitant protagonist Kate Cooper, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, joins forces with adrenaline junkie Tyler Owens, played by Glen Powell, as twin twisters ravage the plains of central Oklahoma. The pair races against a rival team and devastating weather conditions to conduct groundbreaking analysis. Though the film is fictionalized, its overarching circumstances—the treacherous nature of twisters and the difficulty of predicting their arrival—ring true.

In anticipation of the July 19 release of Twisters , we contacted three scientists to unravel some of the secrets wrapped within these catastrophic cyclones. Here are a few of the coolest finds we uncovered.

Supercell thunderstorms are responsible for creating tornadoes

Tornadoes are born within supercell thunderstorms , an anvil-shaped cloud with a rotating updraft called a mesocyclone. As an extremely rare weather event, only one in thousands of storms yields a supercell thunderstorm. One in five or six supercells , though, produces a tornado.

“To get a thunderstorm, we have to have an unstable atmosphere, and generally, for a tornado, we need the thunderstorms to rotate,” says William Gallus, a meteorologist at Iowa State University. “That happens if we have wind shear, which means that the wind speed and wind directions are changing as you go up.”

Warm air rises, cold air falls, rough winds whip within the storm system, and an updraft occurs. If this rotating updraft descends toward the ground, lowering itself below the storm, a tornado can emerge from the chaos.

The tornado forms as the mesocyclone accelerates from the bottom up—and the feature intensifies its rotation, in a way similar to an ice skater who pulls her arms into her body to spin faster, says Jana Houser , a supercell thunderstorm and tornado radar analysis expert at Ohio State University.

The strongest winds of the tornado are closest to the ground

In the atmosphere, the winds get stronger the higher up you go. Tornadoes reverse these conditions, with their strongest winds appearing at the lowest points. This powerful rotation starts at the ground and then floats its way upward to converge into the visible funnel cloud.

“This process happens very quickly,” says Houser, who, alongside her team and National Geographic cameras, captured the very tornadoes set to appear as background footage in the upcoming film Twisters . “In under a minute, you can go from a weak rotation to, all of a sudden, a full tornado.”

According to Gallus, computer models of tornadoes have shown that the strongest winds could lie just 15 feet above the ground—their most brutal region lining up with the height of homes and buildings.

“That’s pretty unfortunate for all of us who live on Earth, because that means that in a tornado, unlike any other weather system, the very worst winds are impacting buildings, people and trees down near the ground,” says Gallus.

Tornadoes can form anywhere, anytime

Most tornadoes are formed in the Great Plains of the United States, in an area deemed “Tornado Alley.” Flat terrain combined with unstable conditions—warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with dry winds drifting in from the Rocky Mountains—provides the ideal breeding ground for twisters to spawn. But tornadoes can happen almost anywhere. They have been reported in all 50 states and all continents except Antarctica, and they’ve struck major urban areas , such as Dallas, Miami and Minneapolis.

But cyclones don’t follow any sort of pattern or path, contrary to popular misconceptions. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in a downtown part of the city, in a hilly area or even a mountainous area,” says Houser. She adds that some terrain may reduce or increase the probability of tornadoes, but complete protection from the twisters can’t be guaranteed.

Similarly, while peak tornado season ranges from May to July depending on location, tornadoes can hit at any month and any time, both day and night.

Tornadoes have uniquely powerful upward motion

In most weather phenomena, the most aggressive winds blow horizontally, directing their potency outward toward the north, south, east and west, rather than upward and downward. Tornadoes defy these expectations. Things resting in the tornado’s path—the roofs of homes, cars, animals—can be suddenly whisked straight up and into the whirl of debris, victim to the sheer power of the tornado’s upward winds. According to Gallus, the strength of a tornado’s upward motion is comparable to the speed at which it moves along terrain, with 100- or 200-mile-an-hour winds shooting up toward the sky.

“That’s why the damage that a tornado does to buildings is very different than if you have the exact same mile-per-hour wind from just a thunderstorm,” says Gallus. “It’s also why you hear these stories of people or things getting picked up and seeming to levitate or fly up into the air—it’s because the tornado has such strong upward motion.”

The air pressure inside a tornado can cause just as much damage as the wind itself

When visiting the site of a Missouri hospital ravaged by a tornado, Gallus recalls, a nurse he spoke with had to tilt her head a certain direction to hear. Due to the intense air pressure change caused by the tornado, her eardrum ruptured. The air pressure in the middle of a tornado can drop suddenly and strongly, as if you were riding on a plane flying up into the air extremely fast. Many people near tornadoes have reported their ears “popping” during the phenomenon. “That change in pressure is almost like nature’s way of giving you a very last warning by having your head experience this strange rapid adjustment and popping going on in your head,” says Gallus.

The change in air pressure can also create an additional force on buildings that, along with the strong winds, can intensify and quicken their destruction.

Terrain can change a tornado’s behavior

Researchers have a difficult time predicting when a tornado will form—and where it will go. Changing winds and differing terrain can make it hard for meteorologists chart the exact path of a twister.

“Tornadoes are incredibly susceptible to very small nuances in the land cover, in the environment, in the storm itself, and it’s very difficult, I would say impossible, to account for every single factor that could possibly go into changing what a tornado is doing,” says Houser. “They defy generalization.”

While predicating a storm is hard, meteorologists say that some features of terrain may enhance the conditions needed for a twister to form. For example, sprawling urban areas can affect thunderstorms, which, in turn, can affect tornadoes. Since cities have more precipitation on their downwind side because of the way water systems interact with urban structures, they produce more rain and more hail, and can be warmer, helping set up an environment that’s more likely for a tornado to form.

“Sometimes urban areas are warmer than rural areas due to the urban heat island. What happens if a tornado goes over a warmer city?” says Jason Naylor, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Louisville. “It looks like the urban heat island could potentially enhance the low-level updrafts in the storm and may help instigate tornadoes in a theoretical way.”

Tornadoes usually rotate counterclockwise, but they can switch directions

In the Northern Hemisphere, about 98 percent of tornadoes spin counterclockwise , which meteorologists label as cyclonical. However, a clockwise-swirling tornado is not out of the question—just much less common.

The counterclockwise motion of most tornadoes has long been attributed to the Coriolis effect, the force caused by the Earth’s rotation. But, according to Houser, this is merely a myth. Tornadoes exist on “too small a space scale and time scale for the Coriolis force to affect it,” she says. Rather, the counterclockwise motion results from how vertical winds change in speed and height within the storm.

Meteorologists call clockwise tornadoes anti-cyclonic. “You get an anti-cyclonic tornado when you have a very strong surge of air within the storm,” says Houser.

Storms can produce more than one tornado at a time

Twisters sees two groups of storm chasers unite as two different tornadoes converge over a small town in central Ohio. This event isn’t just movie magic: The same storm system can really eject multiple tornadoes at once. As winds change, the storm itself can begin to form a new tornado in a slightly different location from the original tornado—with the fledgling rotating updraft gaining power as the other twister slowly dies down. Or, if the original tornado is particularly violent , the level of agitation can churn out smaller whirlwinds that extend toward the ground.

And Houser says that other freak circumstances, such as extremely strong rotation along the edges of a storm, can also produce multiple tornadoes. A clockwise and counterclockwise tornado can even appear in the same storm system.

Tornadoes themselves can’t be forecast—only the conditions that produce them can

The 1996 film Twister and its 2024 companion Twisters center around the same key issue: the frustrating impossibility of forecasting tornadoes. “We don’t even really try to forecast exactly when and where a tornado would hit, because we simply cannot do that ahead of time,” says Gallus.

Warnings for tornadoes are only issued when a twister is already forming and has been sighted—or indicated by weather radar—and the alerts cover an area that may be impacted.

Scientists are able to predict, however, the conditions favorable for supporting thunderstorms that spin and would be more likely to produce tornadoes. Up to a couple of hours ahead of time, when increased weather severity is detected, local television and radio news stations issue a tornado watch.

But a tornado’s intensity can’t be determined until after its wake. Scientists determine a tornado’s level of destruction by using the Enhanced Fujita Scale . The scale assesses the damage a tornado does to trees, buildings and homes. Scientists then use that information to calculate its probable wind speed. The rating system ranges from F0, the weakest cyclone, to F5, a vicious, deadly tornado, which a character in Twister deems the “finger of God.”

Climate change is affecting tornadoes

Tornado Alley is moving eastward . In the past decade, twisters have been inching their way into the Midwest and hitting states such as Missouri in record-breaking severity . Meteorologists attribute this shift to climate change.

“Now, with climate change, places that were normally too cold in the winter are finding themselves with days warm enough that you’re starting to see tornadoes at times of year, parts of the country, where they didn’t used to happen,” says Gallus.

This is caused by climate change’s impact on weather. Gallus says that climate change is making conditions warmer and more humid near the ground, which is increasing the level of instability that leads to stronger, tornado-producing storms.

According to Gallus, we may see more days that meteorologists call tornado outbreak days, where five to ten tornadoes crop up. But climate change could also decrease the frequency of days where one or two tornadoes crop up. Essentially, the number of tornadoes could be concentrated on fewer days.

“We can’t say that tornadoes are going to become stronger. We can’t say that we’re going to have less,” says Gallus. “But what we do know is, because of how the temperature is changing, we are going to start finding them in weird times of the year and places where it always used to be too cold to have a tornado.”

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Catherine Duncan | READ MORE

Catherine Duncan is an intern with  Smithsonian magazine.

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