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Subscribe to RSSResidents salvaged what they could after several tornadoes touched down near Dallas on Tuesday, flattening houses. More than 600 homes were damaged, but remarkably nobody died. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
Tornado season is only just beginning, but already this year has seen dozens of destructive twisters from Illinois to Texas, where up to 18 might have touched town on Tuesday alone in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
"We're at just the beginning of a very unusual" tornado season, NBC weather anchor Al Roker said on TODAY.
The numbers show just how unusual: March saw 223 twisters, up from an average of 80 from 1991-2010, according to the National Weather Service. February saw 63, compared to an average of 29; and January saw 97, compared to an average of 35.
So what's behind the outbreak?
"We've had record heat," weather.com meteorologist Greg Forbes told TODAY, and "that warmth is a big ingredient that provides the instability for the storms."
Last year started off slowly but then saw a record 758 tornadoes in April 2011, noted Roker. "Hopefully we're not on track for that this year."
U.S. forecasters have predicted a warmer than normal spring in the central part of the country, which could increase tornado threats. But countering that is the fact the cyclical La Nina weather pattern, which can help fuel twisters, is waning.
More than 800 homes hit in Dallas area
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Before Tuesday, the last big twister outbreak was on March 23, when tornadoes touched down in six states -- Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri -- killing one person, injuring dozens and damaging hundreds of structures.
So far this year, tornadoes have caused 55 deaths, most on Feb. 29 and March 2 during outbreaks across the Midwest and the South. Through March of 2011, only 2 deaths were attributed to tornadoes.
The peak months for tornadoes are usually April, May and June, so this season is really just beginning.
Tuesday's outbreak suggests "we're on pace to be above normal," the Associated Press quoted National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Bishop as saying.
Some climate scientists expect more extreme weather if global temperatures continue to rise, while others say the science is not strong enough to make that conclusion about single events or even a single season.
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Move!!! There are a lot of places that do not have tornadoes.
I dont think the climate has anything to do with tornadoes, hurricanes ETC.... I just think that they come and go whenever because at the end of the day not everything can be predicted.
By that line of reasoning, the sun rises and sets only because in the morning it's a peeping tom and at night it's tired of watching us so wanders off. The waves lap at the shore because they like to taste the sand and it snows in some regions because God has dandruff. Volcanoes are giant pimples and earthquakes are a result of Atlas shifting our planets weight on his shoulders, too
Nevermind the fact that we have massive amounts of data to support what we DO know, so much that we can predict certain types of weather with some decent accuracy...
"The Lord is Slow to Anger and Great in Power. HE will not acquit the wicked. The Lord has HIS Way in the Whirlwind and the Storm and the Clouds are the Dust of HIS Feet." Nahum 1:3 Great and Mighty is Our GOD. HE is just shaking some Dust Off HIS Feet to Remind people HE is Alive and Very Well! So much for "mother" nature. She doesn't Exist.
There have been far too many weather anomalies to allow any reasonable person capable of coherent thought to just dismiss the idea of climate change.
In addition to this, the question of whether the climate is changing or not has never been an issue, really. The climate IS changing, period. The debate, if you'd call it that, is whether humankind has accelerated it or not.
Global Warming does not mean the planet as a whole will simply get warmer and stay warmer, it means that the average temperatures will rise enough to offset the typical balance and, as a result, kill off plants and animals that are unable to adapt as rapidly as they need to to survive
As a side note, humans are a ridiculously adaptable species but as long as a large enough portion of the population denies what's easy enough to see with open eyes then by the time we as a whole start to adapt to these changes it will be too late.
So what is God punishing Texas for????? They must have done something very evil. After all they were the ones who said New Orleans was hit by Katrina because of their sinfull ways. Just wondering what Sin the Texas @!$%#s did to get such wrath.
I just cannot understand how so many people continue to deny that the earth is warming from greenhouse gasses! In the '70s there was talk about how the earth would begin to warm due to greenhouse gasses. Forty years later we are seeing the greenhouse effect first hand! If you believe that the earth is indeed warming but it is the cause of a natural weather cycle you are mistaken. The earth warms and cools naturally causing glaciers to grow and recede over tens of thousands of years, not 40 or 50 years!
When the ice has melted the coastline we know now will be under hundreds of feet of water! It all starting to happen now, and with each scientific report we find that the Ice is melting faster than we thought it would from the last report. If you think it will not happen in your lifetime think again. There are already inhabited islands that are being inundated by the rising seas.
I just cant believe how so many intellegent people can continue to believe that everything is fine when this planet is showing us so many ominous warming signs.
Let me make one more statement...
The greenhouse effect is a fact! It is happening now! Must we wait until the patient is dead or on life report before we decide to take action?
I guess not!
You're ALL off the-wall!
Everyone KNOWS good and well that the increase in tornadic activity is being caused by extraterrestrials......
The problem is that the mild winter has allowed many exotic grasses to grow where the cows graze. The resulting cow indigestion and cow farts increase CO2 and now we are paying the price. The solution.....wait for it..... EAT MOR CHIKON!!!
All i'm gonna say is HAARP (High frequency active auroral research) program and Chemtrails.
One of the problems with reporting tornadic activity is that prior to widespread radar use, many tornadoes were never seen or reported. There are wide areas of the great plains where nobody lives. Add to that the Fujita scale reflects only how much damage is done to man-made structures. I actually had a conversation with a couple of TV weathermen about how "if a tornado touches down in a pasture and nobody sees it, does it rank above an F-0?" Well, no it doesn't. If it only tears up the grass, and misses any man-made structures, it's an F-0. Scaring the cows doesn't count. So as the population density increases, the severity of the tornadoes increases. Measurements of pressure drops help give a more accurate description of the severity of a tornado, regardless of what it hits or misses, and I believe the record of 100 millibars in 5 secs has been unbroken since it was set in June of 2003.