TORNADOES AND THE CULT OF WARMISM

The tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri May 22 was the deadliest since modern record keeping began in 1950, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  The destruction was truly horrific, as these satellite photos show.

According to NOAA, the yearly average number of tornadoes in the US for the past decade is 1,274.  In the less than five months of this year, 2011, here have been approximately 1,314 tornadoes so far.  Last month, April, there were 875 tornadoes, a record for that month.

The upsurge may be due to global warming, speculated the usual suspects in the news media, among them Newsweek, USA Today, NBC anchor Brian Williams, and Diane Sawyer of ABC.

Yet back in April of 1975, Newsweek claimed that more tornadoes signal global cooling.  Newsweek was more nearly right then.

Tornadoes are caused when a warm air mass collides with a cold air mass, generating a strong wind shear (wind speed and direction changing rapidly with height in the lower atmosphere).

The fact that tornadoes are virtually unheard of in the tropics suggests there is little correlation between them and warmth alone.  There also are few tornadoes in Canada, which suggests there is little correlation between tornadoes and cold alone.  It is the contrast in temperatures that generates tornadoes and most other violent weather events.

As the earth warms, tornadoes should become less frequent, because warming occurs first and most significantly in the polar regions.  This means there is less of a difference in temperature from air masses coming down from the north and those moving up from the south.

NOAA’s data indicate there were many more severe tornadoes in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when it was cooler, than in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, when it’s been warmer.

"Active tornado seasons in the U.S. are almost always due to unusually cool air persisting over the Midwest and Ohio Valley longer than it normally does as we transition into Spring," says Dr. Roy Spencer, a climatologist at the University of Alabama- Huntsville and a former top scientist for NASA.

Air temperatures in the Midwest have been about 10 to 20 degrees cooler this Spring than normal, Dr. Spencer said. Temperatures in May were below normal in 72 percent of the U.S., according to the High Plains Regional Climate Center.

It’s "despicable" to assert a connection between tornadoes and global warming, explained meteorologist Joe Bastardi on Fox News.  So why do journalists such as Mr. Williams and Ms. Sawyer do just that?

Science is based on empirical evidence and a constant testing of hypotheses.  But the theory of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming (AGW) is to climate science what astrology is to astronomy.  It’s a belief system, like that in a cult, which recognizes no contradictions.  AGW is said to responsible for both hot weather and cold, for more snowfall and less, for floods as well as droughts.

Its apostles link every violent weather event to global warming.  We’ve seen how untrue this is with regard to tornadoes.  It’s untrue for hurricanes, too.  As of this writing, it’s been 987 days since a hurricane struck the United States, the longest hurricane-free spell since before the Civil War.

The most accurate measure of global temperatures (and the hardest to manipulate) comes from satellites.  The warmest year on record (since satellites began measuring global temperatures in 1979) is 1998, now more than a dozen years ago.  In the last 12 months, global temperatures declined by a full degree Fahrenheit, a big shift in a single year.

Facts like these cause people who pay attention to facts to doubt humans affect climate more than does nature.  But true believers in AGW are impervious to evidence. As evidence mounts their hypothesis is flawed, they double down.  They do this because theirs is a moral crusade, not a scientific search for truth.

"Anthropogenic global warming has become the root of all evil, the cause of every catastrophe," said Doug Hoffman, an expert in computer models like those used to predict impending doom from global warming.  "Nothing can shake the climate alarmists’ beliefs." 

"As tragic as the effects of this Spring’s violent weather have been, we need to remember that all of Earth’s creatures, including humans, live here at the sufferance of nature," he said.  "Climate alarmists need to recognize that natural disasters are just that — natural."

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.