Breaking Wind on Tornadoes

Timothy Birdnow

Think Progress is blaming the recent spate of tornadoes on Global Warming, according to Rick Moran at American Thinker. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/04/dear_southern_storm_victims_yo.html

According to Moran:

"Liberal hate site Think Progress ("When you Think Progress - think stupid" has a jaw dropping blog post that is beyond "I told ya so" with regards to the dubious connection between climate change and severe weather. The headline says it all: Storms Kill Over 250 Americans In States Represented By Climate Pollution Deniers."

End excerpt.

Rick goes on to note that the non-events - like a dearth of hurricanes this last season - are given no mention and disprove such assertions, and right he is!

But is this recent spate of tornadoes all that unusual?

Nope.

http://www.tornadoproject.com/toptens/topten3.htm

In point of fact, the latter 20th and early 21st centuries have been unusually quiet in terms of tornadic activity in the United States. Consider the numbers:

Rank State(s) Date Time Dead Injured F-Scale Town(s)
1 MO-IL-IN March 18, 1925 1:01PM 695 2027 F5 Murphysboro,Gorham, DeSoto
2 LA-MS May 7, 1840 1:45 PM 317 109 F? Nachez
3 MO-IL May 27, 1896 6:30PM 255 1000 F4 St. Louis, East St. Louis
4 MS April 5, 1936 8:55 PM 216 700 F5 Tupelo
5 GA April 6, 1936 8:27 AM 203 1600 F4 Gainesville
6 TX-OK-KS April 9, 1947 6:05 PM 181 970 F5 Glazier, Higgins, Woodward
7 LA-MS April 24, 1908 11:45AM 143 770 F4 Amite, Pine, Purvis
8 WI June 12, 1899 5:40PM 117 200 F5 New Richmond
9 MI June 8, 1953 8:30 PM 115 844 F5 Flint
10 TX May 11, 1953 4:10PM 114 597 F5 Waco

Now, 1925 was well before the rise in CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere, yet a far more deadly tornado ripped through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. 695 dead, 2027 injured. In 1840 a tornado struck in Louisiana and Mississippi killing 317 and injuring 109. Over four hundred people died and 2300 injured in two tornadoes in 1936. 255 dead in 1896.

So what does that tell us? Does global warming quiet the atmosphere? Perhaps the decline in carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth's atmosphere last year spawned these twisters? http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/21/carbon-emissions-fall-report Maybe if we pump up the CO2, we can make the twister a danger of a bygone era, much like smallpox or Koru (so called Laughing Sickness, a result of eating too familiar a dinner)?

Roy Spencer had a good laugh at this suggestion, and points out that tornadoes are a function of cold air, not warm, and are a result of the La Nina conditions in the Pacific.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2011/04/more-tornadoes-from-global-warming-thats-a-joke-right/

Speaking of Laughing Sickness, that term should be recycled for the syndrome effecting the Global Warming crowd; their stupidity is certainly cause for much jocularity!