FYI: Could Climate Change Cause More (And Bigger) Tornadoes?
Twister OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) A warming world pulls the two factors of tornado formation in opposite directions. Scientists generally agree that climate change will increase the likelihood of extreme weather events, but the jury is still out on how tornadoes will fare in a warming world. Tornadoes are fickle beasts, and it remains tough to predict a tornado a week from now, much less what they might be like over the next few years. "The most common finding is a warming environment leads to more storms and more intense storms, but intensity doesn't necessarily mean organizing and producing tornadoes," says Grady Dixon, an associate professor of geosciences at Mississippi State University who studies tornado climatology. "It takes a certain interaction." Jeff Trapp, a professor of atmospheric science at Purdue University, says that while it's unclear how the intensity or frequency of tornadoes will increase, there may be more...