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| Ben McMillan @ StomChasingVideo |
A peak was reached a couple of years ago when 1,777 tornadoes were counted, then a significant drop in the number of tornadoes took place after part of the Arctic Vortex spun off and brought the U.S. a surprise cold winter (compare On The Origin of Tornadoes - 3, The Damaged Global Climate System).
Regular readers can benefit from the large database of tornado information Dredd Blog went through and presented, going all the way back past the second industrial revolution, on back to the first industrial revolution (On The Origin of Tornadoes, On The Origin of Tornadoes - 2, On The Origin of Tornadoes - 3 --the last one has reference to the NOAA database and statistics).
Since the global climate system is damaged, it generates strange patterns of weather even to the point that surprises happen more and more often (e.g. Is A New Age Of Pressure Upon Us? - 6).
Climate change means that there is no longer a steady predictable pattern, rather, it is more and more a helter skelter pattern.
The only thing predictable on a "long term" basis is that the CO2 and other greenhouse gases continue to be pumped into the atmosphere as the global average temperature continues to rise along with that greenhouse gas surge.
In terms of tornado surprises, yesterday a rare "double tornado" event took place as many meteorologists scratched their heads because they had never seen the likes of this type of equal, large, double wedges about a mile apart:
“It’s less common for two tornadoes to track together for so long, especially with that same intensity,” she said. “By no means is it unprecedented. But we don’t see it often.”(Washington Post). Another good thing is that deaths from tornado destruction are down as is the cost of property damage.
Business Insider
Tornadoes form from a supercell thunderstorm, which contains a large column of rotating air. It’s not uncommon for one twister to dissipate before another forms out of the same supercell.
But it’s much less common for the primary twister to keep going when the new one forms, producing the two simultaneously, said Greg Carbin, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Storm Prediction Center.
How long this slow down continues is unpredictable.
But, the danger from typhoons, heat, droughts, fires, floods, and other storms increases in some places around the globe to the point that it seems like areas of the globe take turns experiencing the worst, then sometimes experiencing a reprieve.
Our greatest danger now is triggering feedback loops and reaching tipping points of no return. [Some scientists say (others believe but won't say) that several dozen tipping points have already been crossed and that industrial civilization is doomed. Tom, a regular reader pointed that out in a comment to this post.] (see Tipping Point info here, here, here, and here.)
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
Dredd, i'm a little confused by your last sentence. According to NBL Climate Summary we're up to 38 of those tipping points and have long since crossed the point of no return. No amount of wishing or denial is going to change the outcome - we're done. The only hope now is that industrial civilization cease as soon as possible to stop the changes from killing everything alive beyond the microscopic - and even that's under threat from man-made radiation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great research you do - and the superior quality of the information shared here.
Tom
I updated the last sentence and refereed to your comment. For other readers there is a link to Nature Bats Last (NBL) in the links section of Dredd Blog.
DeleteMy respect for you is of the highest order.
ReplyDeleteTom
Right-wing religionists in the House of Representatives (some in Senate too) do not even believe in climate change ("it is the greatest hoax ever done").
ReplyDeleteYet the one they profess to believe in, Jesus Christ, mentioned something they seem not to notice.
It was in a Dredd Blog post: "For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now — and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive ..." - Jesus Christ (Matt. 24)
Link
That describes a collapse like never before doesn't it?
Climate change “may doom us all, and not in the distant future,” Chomsky said. “It may overwhelm everything. This is the first time in human history that we have the capacity to destroy the conditions for decent survival. It is already happening. Look at species destruction. It is estimated to be at about the level of 65 million years ago when an asteroid hit the earth, ended the period of the dinosaurs and wiped out a huge number of species. It is the same level today. And we are the asteroid. If anyone could see us from outer space they would be astonished. There are sectors of the global population trying to impede the global catastrophe. There are other sectors trying to accelerate it. Take a look at whom they are. Those who are trying to impede it are the ones we call backward, indigenous populations—the First Nations in Canada, the aboriginals in Australia, the tribal people in India. Who is accelerating it? The most privileged, so-called advanced, educated populations of the world.” - Noam Chomsky
ReplyDeleteAnother: Link
ReplyDelete