Tornado Watches in Alabama, Georgia and Southeastern States

A massive tornado that ripped through the town of Selma, Alabama on Thursday caused “significant damage,” Selma’s mayor said – one of more than a dozen tornado reports made in that state alone as violent storms storms cross the southeast, causing several injuries.

Unlike heat waves, floods and hurricanes, scientific research into the link between the climate crisis and tornadoes hasn’t been so easy to do – although climate researchers say uncertainty doesn’t mean It’s unlikely, and experts are already seeing changes in how recent tornadoes and outbreaks behave.

The more humans pump greenhouse gases like fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere and change the system, the greater the chance of extreme weather events occurring, intensifying and changing location and traditional patterns. will amplify.

Todd Moore, associate professor and chair of the department of geosciences at Fort Hays State University, said that over the past few decades, tornado frequency has increased across large swaths of the southern Midwest and Southeast, while decreasing in parts of the central and southern Great Plains. , an area traditionally known as Tornado Alley.

A study he authored in 2019 indicated that climate change, among other factors, could be contributing to this eastward shift in Tornado Alley, driving more tornadoes to more populated states east of the Mississippi River. . Moore points to different ingredients that may have led to this change, such as humidity, instability and strong wind shear.

His study also found that tornadoes “cluster fewer days in the year” and days with little tornado activity become less frequent, with outbreaks becoming more frequent during the fall and winter seasons.

How tornadoes work: Tornadoes form under particularly specific atmospheric conditions, but are primarily fueled by warm, moist air from strong winds that change direction with altitude.

Scientists have warned that rising greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere are drastically changing the climate system, causing strange behavior in the jet stream – fast-flowing air currents in the upper atmosphere that influence weather conditions. daily weather.

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