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Have There Been More Hurricanes In Recent Years Because of Technology?

     Have there been more hurricanes in recent years? Is that from climate change? Or is it just an advancement of technology? The National Hurricane Center's Christopher W. Landsea, Chief of the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch, and Eric Blake, a Senior Hurricane Specialist, studied this topic in a recent article of theirs. About 15 years ago, scientists and researchers found that the number of hurricanes had increased over the past hundred years. But interestingly, during the 1940s and 1950s, there was an increase in short-lived or low-impact storms. At the same time, there were more aircraft over the oceans and the Hurricane Hunters began missions looking for hurricanes.  Last year, nearly 42 trillion dollars of damage were caused by tropical cyclones. This included a record-breaking 13 in the U.S., six of which were in Louisiana. Down in Central America, trillions of dollars in damage was delivered by destructive hurricanes such as Hurricane Iota .  O...
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Tornado Alley Expanding Eastward, Analysis Finds

    Per a recent USA Today analysis and newly published studies, the areas most frequently getting a tornado - dubbed Tornado Alley - has expanded eastward in recent years. More than 60,000 tornadoes were reported across the U.S. from 1950 to 2019. More than half were EF1 or stronger. 



First, let's take a look at how tornadoes form:

Thunderstorm and Tornado Development 

When lower-level Gulf winds meet cooler upper-level winds from the west, it can create instability and wind shear, key ingredients for tornadoes, according to Shawn Milrad, associate professor of meteorology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. 

When thunderstorms begin to form, wind shear, where winds of different directions and altitudes interact, can make the air spin on a horizontal axis. But winds alone don't make tornadoes; something needs to tilt that spinning air. 

Rising air in thunderstorms and daytime heating at the surface can create updrafts, tilting the spinning tube vertically. 

Warmer air rising from the surface meeting colder air above is the reason most thunderstorms happen in late afternoon. 

Tornadoes can form within the spinning updraft as a funnel cloud reaching up from the bottom. 

Tornado Data

When comparing 2000-2019 with the previous two decades, we saw an increase in days with tornado outbreaks, or swarms—events where ten or more tornadoes are spawned by the same weather system within a couple days. 

Overall, 20 U.S. states saw an increase in tornado activity when comparing annual data from 1980 to 1999 with 2000 to 2019. Scientists can’t pinpoint precisely how much may be due to an increase in reporting due to improved technology. 

"Regions in the Southeast and Midwest are closing the gap when it comes to the number of tornado reports", Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University says. "It’s not that Texas and Oklahoma do not get tornadoes. They’re still the number one location in terms of tornado frequency, but the trend in many locations is down over the past 40 years." 



When you compare the total number of people killed by tornadoes from 2000-2019 with the previous 20 years, many states in the Southeast saw significant increases. Many of the deaths can be attributed to major outbreaks. Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky had the biggest increases in deaths. 

One factor in play in those states is a high mobile home density. And mobile homes are very prone to tornado damage. 


Another factor is the amount of trees (which obviously cause damage to homes and cars): 

Night tornadoes are the worst, with the highest death rate: 

All in all, there are lots of tornadoes occurring in states farther east than the traditional Tornado Alley

Pictures/Graphics: 

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