Yes. Climate science is very complicated, and it's always good not to jump in and blame climate change, which is a macro science, but that said - a couple of years ago the first tornado in Brooklyn happened and now we've had one in Philadelphia. It does look to the untrained eye like weather patterns are changing. Alabama, which got hit hard, is outside of traditional tornado alley.
However, there might be something else at work, and that's people simply not getting tornado warnings or ignoring them. Back when there were three channels and only local radio, a huge swath of the population was going to get the tornado warnings and likely heed them. Now, between the internet in general, video games, social media, satellite radio, smart phones - there's plenty more information options but you have to be looking for local warnings to get them. People are much more likely to ignore or miss news reports than they were twenty years ago. Apparently, there was a warning given in Joplin but the local high school was graduating and there were a number of other things going on in the town. A text alert just doesn't carry the same gravitas as a local anchor breaking into programming and telling you to get into the basement. There was a story on NPR about the national weather service being very aware of this and trying to come up with solutions. And CNN just posted this story:
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/24/jo ... ce/?hpt=T2I know I get text alerts from my university, and I got one saying severe weather - students and staff are advised to take shelter. That was the first time I can recall that happening, previously the alert system was used for crime alerts and to announce snow days. I think that means they are trying, which is a good thing.
In other words, set your smart phones to get weather push alerts and heed them.
Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 5:36 pm
