Big tornadoes are coming in bigger and bigger swarms. The number of twisters in extreme, multi-tornado outbreaks are increasing. And scientists aren’t sure why.
The quantity of killer tornadoes in big outbreaks have doubled since the mid-1960s, according to a new peer-reviewed study published in the journal of Science. For instance, an outbreak in 1965, the study says, would have spun about 40 tornadoes. But in 2015, the quantity of twisters has increased to about 80 per big outbreak.
Yet, strangely, there has not been any significant increase in the annual number of tornadoes or the number of outbreaks in recent decades.
“Something’s up,” says lead study author Michael Tippet of Columbia University. “The tornadoes that do occur are occurring in clusters.”
Could it be man-made climate change? With global warming, you would think there would be more energy around the severe storms to fire up, but the study says that hasn’t been the case. Scientists haven’t linked increasing wind shear to a warming climate either.
So, scientists are puzzled. “This study raises new questions about what climate change will do to severe thunderstorms and what is responsible for recent trends,” Tippett said.
In the last days, there will be bigger and more devastating destruction from storms due to the wickedness of man.
“As I hear of the terrible calamities that from week to week are taking place, I ask myself: What do these things mean? The most awful disasters are following one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of seemingly disorganized, unregulated forces, but in them God’s purpose may be read. They are one of the means by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 8, page 252.
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