US nears record tornado year; meteorologists don’t know why
WASHINGTON (AP) – Another week, another rumbling train of tornadoes that obliterates entire city blocks, smashing homes to their foundations and killing people even as they cower in their basements.
With the year not even half done, 2008 is already the deadliest tornado year in the United States since 1998 and seems on track to break the U.S. record for the number of twisters in a year, according to the National Weather Service. Also, this year’s storms seem to be unusually powerful.But like someone who has lost all his worldly possessions to a whirlwind, meteorologists cannot explain exactly why this is happening.
“There are active years and we don’t particularly understand why,” said research meteorologist Harold Brooks at the National Severe Storms Lab in Norman, Okla.
There’s something happening in weather that the experts don’t understand? You’re kidding me right! Isn’t everything caused by gorebal warming? Apparently not!
Global warming cannot really explain what is happening, Carbin said. While higher temperatures could increase the number of thunderstorms, which are needed to trigger tornadoes, they also would tend to push the storm systems too far north to form some twisters, he said.
La Nina, the cooling of parts of the Central Pacific that is the flip side El Nino, was a factor in the increased activity earlier this year"”especially in February, a record month for tornado activity"”but it can’t explain what is happening now, according to Carbin.
Carbin explained the most recent tornadoes with just one word: “May.” May is typically the busiest tornado month of the year.
That sounds like scientific lingo for “Shit happens!”
Gee, that’s pretty much what I’ve thought about gorebal warming all along; the most likely and accurate explanation for weather changes is “Shit happens!”
And I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!
