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The Effects of Global Warming on Tornadoes

Global warming has a wide range of effects on climatic events. In particular, global warming is predicted to lead to an increase the incidence of extreme events, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, as demonstrated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. With warming temperatures, tornadoes may become more frequent and more powerful, with a greater risk to lives and property.

What is a Tornado?
- A tornado, or twister, is a violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground, with rotating winds of up to 250 miles per hour. A tornado can be up to a mile wide and can travel for up to 50 miles over ground at speeds ranging from almost stationary to 70 miles per hour, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Tornadoes occur around the world, but they are most common in the USA, with an average of 70 fatalities and 1,500 injuries each year.
Formation of a Tornado
- A tornado begins in a severe thunderstorm called a supercell, which lasts longer than regular thunderstorms. Supercells that produce tornadoes form in areas where the atmosphere is unstable and where cold dry air meets warm moist tropical air, according to Windows to the Universe. The wind that enters the supercell storm starts to swirl and forms a funnel, which spins at increasing speeds, creating a very low pressure area that subsequently sucks more air into it and becomes a tornado.
Potential Effects of Global Warming
- With warming temperatures, more energy is supplied to climate systems as land surfaces warm more quickly than oceans. A climate model developed by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center in 2007 projects that for the United States, the most extreme storms, such as tornadoes, will occur more often in a warmer climate.
Consequences
- The consequences of global warming intensifying tornado occurrences would be of particular importance to people and property located in "tornado alley" in the central United States, regarded as the global hotspot of tornado activity. This region would be greatly impacted by an increase in the number of tornadoes, placing people and property within the region at much greater risk. For instance, the Telegraph reports how the tornado system of April 2011 was the deadliest since the "super outbreak" of April 1974, when 310 people where killed in 148 tornadoes across 13 states, indicating possible evidence of the impact of warming on tornadoes.

Nature