2012 is starting out with a fury, with tornado outbreaks reported in January, February, and March.\u00a0 And now the recent outbreak in Dallas-Fort Worth in April.\u00a0 This article was written in response to some thoughts about extreme weather events and climate shifting and change.<\/p>\n
Extreme weather events, from record-breaking tornado outbreaks to record-breaking temperatures, drought, and snowfalls, are forcing the climate change issue\u2014but is the warming weather actually causing an increase in numbers and strength of storms?<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a dozen tornadoes swept through the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area causing extensive damage and injuries.\u00a0 Fortunately, no fatalities were reported.\u00a0 Although it is not uncommon for the Dallas-Fort Worth area to be hit by tornadoes, \u201chaving two major systems strike a single metropolitan area is highly unusual,\u201d said meteorologist Jesse Moore.\u00a0 The Dallas-Fort Worth outbreak came on the heels of several other deadly tornado outbreaks that occurred earlier this year, and followed an exceptionally deadly and destructive year for tornadoes in 2011 (552 deaths, which ranks second in number of deaths in a single year in U.S. history).<\/p>\n
Tornadoes can occur at any time of the year in the U.S., with \u201ctornado season\u201d officially beginning in March and peaking in May and June across the Central U.S.\u00a0 This year, like last year, tornado season began early in January, when a significant outbreak occurred across the southern states. <\/a> There was another outbreak in February (Leap Day Outbreak<\/a>), followed by one of the largest outbreaks ever recorded for early March<\/a>, with 160 tornadoes.\u00a0 Thus far in 2012, 57 people have been killed as a result of these storms.<\/p>\n Records indicate that we\u2019re breaking more heat records than cold records.\u00a0 The winter of 2011-2012 was the fourth warmest on record, and March 2012 was the hottest ever for much of the nation.\u00a0 More than 6,000 high-temperature records were broken and, according to Accuweather.com<\/a>, \u201c\u2026cities in more than 25 states, as well as Washington, D.C., broke records for average daily temperatures last month, including Chicago, Oklahoma City, Des Moines, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Detroit.\u201d<\/p>\n While most of the nation enjoyed the benefits of the warmer, drier winter, Anchorage, Alaska, endured a brutal winter (as did much of Europe and Asia).\u00a0 Extremes swing both ways.\u00a0 As Dr. Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, points out, \u201cExtremes are always expected to happen as the climate record gets longer, but certain extremes related to heating are becoming more evident.\u00a0 For example in the United States, extremes of high temperatures have been occurring at a rate of twice those of cold extremes, and this has accelerated considerably since June 2010…Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana all suffered their hottest June-July-August (JJA) 2011 since 1895\u2026(and) Texas also experienced the driest JJA on record.\u201d<\/p>\n And Texas isn\u2019t alone. Colorado is experiencing an unusual drought as well, with early-season wildfires already claiming several lives.\u00a0 According to The Denver Post<\/em>, “98 percent of the state is experiencing varying levels of drought;” and Wendy Ryan, a Research Associate at the Colorado Climate Center, noted that “In Fort Collins, we had the hottest and driest March on record … This is the first time we’ve ever had only a trace of precipitation for March.\u00a0 No years have had zero.”<\/p>\n