Violent Tornadoes Are LESS Frequent With a Warmer Climate

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Due to Monday evening's tornado in Birmingham and from a presentation I made last week, the questions are flowing,

Is climate change causing more violent tornadoes?

It turns out the reverse is true. Violent tornadoes are much less common than they were 50-70 years ago. The chart below is updated through 2020. 

The dashed orange line shows the downward trend of violent tornadoes (F-4 or EF-4 or stronger on the Fujita Scale) since the 1950's. In 2018, we didn't have a single violent tornado anywhere in the United States. 

This is one of the benefits of a warmer climate. However, fewer tornadoes and the other benefits do not outweigh the wisdom of decarbonizing our energy supply. 

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