Tornado Season: Off to a Horrible Start

The last two weeks of March had some horrific weather, setting us off for the tornado season that usually ranges from April through June. Friday April 24th had a really catastrophic EF4 version ripping through Rolling Fork, Mississippi and then the following Friday April 31st had another damaging tornado rated EF3 roaring through Little Rock, Arkansas.

I remember looking at the first videos coming out on Friday night, April 24th, thinking the damage looked severe, and I read through the comments to see if someone could enlighten the world on the severity of the tornado, but I didn’t really see anything. I thought, it’s nighttime and I can’t see video image really well – wait until daylight to assess the damage. Well, daylight came, and the damage was extensive.

Heartbreakingly so.

Horror of horror, another storm system came through and brought forth another terrifying tornado the following Friday. The damages looked just as extensive as the prior Friday.

Fortunately, this past Friday brought a reprieve even though there was a forecast for yet another storm system passing through the Midwest and Northeast.

Are these storms an omen of things to come? We can’t tell. It may have been a fluke that March ended with a bang.

The other question that people (and I) ask is: is climate change the reason why we have these horrible tornadoes? Right now, meteorologists and storm chasers, from what I can tell, are saying they doubt is because tornadoes are a little more complicated. It is hard to tease out the causes of the storms and they are hesitant to attribute climate change to tornadoes. Even though I’m no expert on weather or any of this stuff, I’m inclined to go along with them because no one has come up with a convincing reasoning for climate change affecting tornadoes.

I’ve heard the logic behind hurricanes, fires, droughts and other severe storms and they make sense. And we definitely have a lot more scientists (maybe like 90 percent or more – Bing ChatGPT is giving me 97% of climate scientists believe human activity is causing global warming and climate change) standing behind the idea of climate change is real. So, for heat waves, hurricanes, and drought, I will listen to those scientists.

For now, climate change is not being attributed to the severity of tornadoes.

So, what will this tornado season look like? Nobody knows. It could be that the rest of the season is quiet. I would love for that to be true.