As you report, more than three-hundred tornadoes recently hit seven southern states in America, and more than three-hundred people died, most of them in Alabama (“Out of the Whirlwind,” May 7, 2011). Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, and Arkansas were hit quite badly, too. Nothing like this happened since 1925. Gregory Carbin, the warning-coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, says the storms were of a once-in-a-century severity. “We know what happened is pretty rare,” he claims reassuringly. Craig Fugate, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says that comparing tornadoes to hurricanes is like “comparing apples to oranges.” The connection between the two in terms of climate change is not even mentioned, though. Chances are that both tornadoes and hurricanes of increasing severity will become ever less rare. Storms of a once-in-a-century severity may soon hit the seven southern states much more often, and the connection between tornadoes and hurricanes will need serious rethinking. Sweeping climate change under the rug will not do for too long.

Addendum (March 3, 2012)

Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana… And more than thirty people dead in a couple of days. When I remember last year, I realize it must be about 2100 right now. Time flies, as Gregory Carbin and Craig Fugate are sure to argue at the moment. In fact, it flies at the speed of tornadoes and hurricanes, no less.