Sprat Issue 2 – More Tornadoes
By James Donahue
The Jack Sprat list of world issues declares that there has been an increase in the number of tornadoes as part of the dramatic change in our weather patterns. According to Jesse Ferrell, meteorologist for Accu Weather, Mr. Sprat is quite right.
In a report on the Accu Weather web site, 2011 ranked as the fourth most deadly tornado year ever recorded in the United States with nearly 1,700 of these violent storms reported.
The 2022 season is getting off to a troublesome start. According to Wikipedia, from April 4–5 a mesoscale convective system and numerous discrete supercells produced a swath of severe weather and several tornadoes in the Southeastern United States, including several strong, long tracked tornadoes. An EF3 tornado damaged or destroyed several homes in Bonaire, Georgia while a large EF3 tornado prompted a tornado emergency for Allendale and Sycamore, South Carolina. A violent EF4 tornado in Black Creek, Georgia resulted in one fatality as it destroyed several neighborhoods and another large EF3 tornado caused widespread heavy tree damage northeast of Ulmer, South Carolina.
The 2011 Super Outbreak remains the largest tornado outbreak spawned by a single weather system in recorded history; it produced 360 tornadoes from April 25–28, with 216 of those in a single 24-hour period on April 27 from midnight to midnight, fifteen of which were violent EF4–EF5 tornadoes. 348 deaths occurred in that outbreak, of which 324 were tornado related. This outbreak largely contributed to the record for most tornadoes in the month of April with 773 tornadoes, almost triple the prior record (267 in April 1974).
The infamous 1974 Super Outbreak of April 3–4, 1974, which spawned 148 confirmed tornadoes across eastern North America, held the record for the most prolific tornado outbreak in terms of overall tornadoes for many years, and still holds the record for most violent, long-track tornadoes.
The all-time record was 1,817 tornadoes in the United States, which was set in 2004. The national average over the past ten years is about 1,300, Ferrell said.
The largest and widest tornado ever recorded in the U.S. occurred in June, 2013, at El Reno, Oklahoma. This E-5 twister carved a path 2.6 miles wide and 16.2 miles long and left 18 people dead in its wake.
Researchers Michael Pateman and Drew Vankat found that the frequency of tornadoes in the US has increased significantly since 1950, when the total was about 200. In 1958 there was a major spike in tornadoes when the number hit about 820. The numbers have been on a steady increase ever since.
Not only are tornadoes occurring more frequently, they no longer appear to be happening in the central plain states that have long been called "tornado alley." They now are happening as far east as New York and Florida and north into Michigan and Wisconsin. They also have been occurring in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.
Some of the worse tornado clusters from single storm fronts are now ravaging the United States. The property damage from these storms is in the billions of dollars. In addition, meteorologists are expressing concern about the speed at which some of these storms have been moving. There was a time when it was thought such storms moved at no more than 40 miles an hour. But one twister in Central Kentucky recently was clocked at moving 85 miles an hour. Some of the tornadoes in Kentucky were estimated to have been moving forward at speeds of 70 miles per hour.
It has only been in the last few years that technology has been developed to allow meteorologists to accurately study the size and velocity of tornados. Thus we are hearing about the various strengths of these storms ranging from F1 to F5. Storms of the F5 category pack winds of 160 miles per hour or higher and sometimes can be a mile or more in width.
Tornadoes that touch the ground remain among the most destructive storms to occur in the world.
So yes Mr. Sprat, the number of tornadoes in the world is on the increase and they are getting more and more deadly.
By James Donahue
The Jack Sprat list of world issues declares that there has been an increase in the number of tornadoes as part of the dramatic change in our weather patterns. According to Jesse Ferrell, meteorologist for Accu Weather, Mr. Sprat is quite right.
In a report on the Accu Weather web site, 2011 ranked as the fourth most deadly tornado year ever recorded in the United States with nearly 1,700 of these violent storms reported.
The 2022 season is getting off to a troublesome start. According to Wikipedia, from April 4–5 a mesoscale convective system and numerous discrete supercells produced a swath of severe weather and several tornadoes in the Southeastern United States, including several strong, long tracked tornadoes. An EF3 tornado damaged or destroyed several homes in Bonaire, Georgia while a large EF3 tornado prompted a tornado emergency for Allendale and Sycamore, South Carolina. A violent EF4 tornado in Black Creek, Georgia resulted in one fatality as it destroyed several neighborhoods and another large EF3 tornado caused widespread heavy tree damage northeast of Ulmer, South Carolina.
The 2011 Super Outbreak remains the largest tornado outbreak spawned by a single weather system in recorded history; it produced 360 tornadoes from April 25–28, with 216 of those in a single 24-hour period on April 27 from midnight to midnight, fifteen of which were violent EF4–EF5 tornadoes. 348 deaths occurred in that outbreak, of which 324 were tornado related. This outbreak largely contributed to the record for most tornadoes in the month of April with 773 tornadoes, almost triple the prior record (267 in April 1974).
The infamous 1974 Super Outbreak of April 3–4, 1974, which spawned 148 confirmed tornadoes across eastern North America, held the record for the most prolific tornado outbreak in terms of overall tornadoes for many years, and still holds the record for most violent, long-track tornadoes.
The all-time record was 1,817 tornadoes in the United States, which was set in 2004. The national average over the past ten years is about 1,300, Ferrell said.
The largest and widest tornado ever recorded in the U.S. occurred in June, 2013, at El Reno, Oklahoma. This E-5 twister carved a path 2.6 miles wide and 16.2 miles long and left 18 people dead in its wake.
Researchers Michael Pateman and Drew Vankat found that the frequency of tornadoes in the US has increased significantly since 1950, when the total was about 200. In 1958 there was a major spike in tornadoes when the number hit about 820. The numbers have been on a steady increase ever since.
Not only are tornadoes occurring more frequently, they no longer appear to be happening in the central plain states that have long been called "tornado alley." They now are happening as far east as New York and Florida and north into Michigan and Wisconsin. They also have been occurring in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.
Some of the worse tornado clusters from single storm fronts are now ravaging the United States. The property damage from these storms is in the billions of dollars. In addition, meteorologists are expressing concern about the speed at which some of these storms have been moving. There was a time when it was thought such storms moved at no more than 40 miles an hour. But one twister in Central Kentucky recently was clocked at moving 85 miles an hour. Some of the tornadoes in Kentucky were estimated to have been moving forward at speeds of 70 miles per hour.
It has only been in the last few years that technology has been developed to allow meteorologists to accurately study the size and velocity of tornados. Thus we are hearing about the various strengths of these storms ranging from F1 to F5. Storms of the F5 category pack winds of 160 miles per hour or higher and sometimes can be a mile or more in width.
Tornadoes that touch the ground remain among the most destructive storms to occur in the world.
So yes Mr. Sprat, the number of tornadoes in the world is on the increase and they are getting more and more deadly.