Are there more tornadoes than there used to be and is global warming climate change to blame? The answer in both cases is apparently, "no" (Hat tip: Plant Gore).
First, more tornadoes:
"If you look at the past 60 years of data, the number of tornadoes is increasing significantly, but it's agreed upon by the tornado community that it's not a real increase," said Grady Dixon, assistant professor of meteorology and climatology at Mississippi State University.
"It's having to do with better (weather tracking) technology, more population, the fact that the population is better educated and more aware. So we're seeing them more often," Dixon said.
In other words, the increased reports of tornadoes are artifacts of modern life, not an actual increase in the number of tornadoes.
And the deadliness of yesterday's tornadoes are most likely due at least in part to there being more population for the tornadoes to hit.
What about climate change and tornadoes? According to scientists, there is no link:
US meteorologists warned Thursday it would be a mistake to blame climate change for a seeming increase in tornadoes in the wake of deadly storms that have ripped through the US south.
And:
Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), also dismissed Thursday climate change as a factor in the deadly tornadoes: "Actually what we're seeing is springtime," he said . . ."We knew it was going to be a big tornado year," he said. But the key to that tip-off was unrelated to climate change: "It is related to the natural fluctuations of the planet."
"Natural fluctuations of the planet." You mean the planet changes naturally? And here I thought it was because I drive a car with a V-8 engine and don't have enough pig-tail light bulbs in my house.
The greens want to blame any strange weather on climate change. But, you know, sometimes, it's just weather.



