From my understanding, much of the area acquired in the Louisiana purchase in particular had to be explored on foot or covered wagon. But tornado alley would have been dead center in the territory, and the southern areas get bad storms themselves nowadays.
My question is how did explorers and travelers predict and avoid the weather? Or did they sort of just hunker down whenever it caught them? I imagine driving a covered wagon through a supercell thunderstorm would be quite a harrowing experience.
Is it possible that the weather was more consistently mild at this point in time?
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First, tornado alley is not as dangerous as you seem to think. I grew up in the area and tornadoes do happen. But we were only threatened by one once every couple of years. Most are also fairly mild. When they do come it’s because of weather patterns that usually mean several come with a few weeks time period
But that said, we do have some accounts of tornadoes in that time period and location.
One example is the June 8, 1860 tornado near Stanton, Kansas. The tornado touched down near the Baker residence and killed the entire family. However, none of the rest of the town even noticed that a tornado happened until they awoke the next morning.
One reason why Tornado Alley is regarded as so fearsome is because old tales often exaggerate or add supernatural elements. An 1879 tornado near Dallas on April 15th killed nobody, but was said to be a “green-rimmed cone-shaped tornado which rose and fell moving like a monster wave.” Possibly true, but I’ve never heard of a tornado like that anywhere else. On 11 July 1860 Lt Stewart attacked a band of Kiowa Indians near Leavenworth, Kansas. When the tornado hit on August 4th, the remaining Kiowa said it was divine retribution. The Kiowa also have a story about a tornado that made land near a war party. The medicine men prayed to the storm spirit and got it to circumvent their group.
All that said, deadly tornadoes often did strike, leaving destruction in their wake. For example, the June 17, 1882 tornado in Grinnell, Iowa killed 65 people and destroyed much of the town, including the college campus. Also worth noting is the 1884 tornado outbreak on August 28 in southern South Dakota. In the span of 4 hours 6 tornadoes landed. Only ~7 people were killed, but lots of cattle and buildings were destroyed. It was also one of the first photographed tornadoes.
Ely Moore records a trip he took to deliver mail near Kansas City in 1854. He joined the Miami Tribe for a multi-week hunting trip. After a few weeks of hunting, the Miami noticed changes in nature that indicated a tornado would be coming soon. They had a few hours to prepare. They dug narrow trenches that they put the wagon wheels in. The wagons were arranged in a circle formation. More fasteners were put on the wagon covers to keep them secure. The women and children laid down in the wagons and the men watched the livestock in the center of the wagon circle. Even though the tornado came very near, it didn’t kill anyone. Rather the debris it was throwing around caused some injuries, mostly to livestock. Several wagons were also damaged.