On Friday morning's "Early Show," CBS co-host Harry Smith was hot on the tornado beat. "As we've reported, a huge storm in the middle of the country is blamed for four deaths in three states. The storm caused 65 tornadoes in just one day. It's just the beginning of tornado season, but we have already seen more than 300 of them and it is likely to get even worse as we get into April and May, the prime tornado months."
He brought on Warren Faidley, who he said "calls himself an extreme weather journalist. He's been chasing tornadoes for some 20 years now and he joins us this morning." Smith asked vaguely why the increased tornadoes, but when the answer he wanted wasn't obvious enough, he pounced: "You talked about El Nino. It's hard to talk about climate and not talk about global warming. Do you think that has anything to do with it?
Faidley responded: "Well, there's research right now studying to see if El Nino is related to global warming, but, you know, the earth is getting warmer. There's no doubt about that. The statistics show that no matter who you listen to. And of course storms love heat. Heat is energy to storms. That's one of the problems now with the active jet stream pattern we're seeing and the increased heat. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in April and May when the tornado season peaks."
Smith also talked about the hurricane season, but didn't say that last year's mild hurricane disproved global warming panic scenarios: "It was interesting, because there were so many hurricanes predicted for last year, but those prevailing winds just kept pushing, you know, whatever storms that did form, kept pushing them right off the coast." That was puzzling, while the answer to extreme weather seems obvious to CBS.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center
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April 3rd 1974...Central Kent
March 31, 2007 - 08:36 ET by ltcolusmcretApril 3rd 1974...Central Kentucky. A tornado came over my father's house where I was living having just finished college and awaiting my impending marriage. The outbreak that day and night saw, if my faulty memory serves, dozens if not over a hundred tornados. If my faulty memory serves again during this time period, if not soon after, we were being warned of "GLOBAL COOLING". Which is it? Cooling or warming? Come on you liberal nutters. "Splain" it to me please. You can't. It has nothing to do with either cooling or warming of the climate. Nor of course does so-called global warming have anything to do with anything other than the attempt by scum-sucking, maggot-ridden, fecal-filled liberals to control us. When Al opens up his house to homeless people or sells it and moves into a 600 sq ft condo (all two people need really-and we all understand that liberals as commie dogs are all about "need" v/s ability to obtain) then he can at a minimum claim some respectability. Until then he and all liberals can FOAD as far as I am concerned. If I were Islamic I would now yell out "Death to Global Warming-Death to Global Warming". As I prance around with my fist in the air, unshaven, unbathed and Islamicstupid.
I'm glad Tim brought up last
March 31, 2007 - 09:00 ET by botgI'm glad Tim brought up last years hurricanes. No doubt we are in a warming cycle and will have weather to deal with. (Vineyards in Manchester you say?)
Most of us have probally seen the great hoax movie and realize that the sun is alot more powerful than us. As to Al Gore, hey if YOU wear YOUR hat backwards the Titans will win YOU'RE that important.
As a meteorologist who love
March 31, 2007 - 09:12 ET by Jake GonteskyAs a meteorologist who loves chasing storms, the connection between global warming and tornado frequency or strength is one that has interested me for some time. I have written a piece specifically about the connection between the two here:
http://www.notesinthemargin.com/archives/177
i guess one tornado today is
March 31, 2007 - 09:16 ET by botgi guess one tornado today is a lot more dramatic than ten last year
Jake, my take from looking
March 31, 2007 - 09:24 ET by NL207Jake, my take from looking at the limited data you have, is that severe tornado activiy might have been declining during the period 1967-1998 corresponding to the last warming cycle, but the correlation is not at all strong. It looks like the expert meteorologist is right, "We don't really know" and the 'expert' climatologist, is as is usually the case, wrong.
Florida Weather
March 31, 2007 - 09:13 ET by pbthinkerI heard a forecaster, the other day, talking about the dry weather in Florida. One of his comments struck me as he tried to explain why, normally during an El Nino year, we get more rain and this year we didn't.
There is so much people do NOT understand, about what drives our climate, it's amazing. They have little understanding about what drives the Jet Stream, about what starts and stops El Nino's and, yet they can predict, with virtual certainty, what is going to happen 100 years from now.
As with all weather, let's work on coming up with an accurate 5 day forecast and move out from there. They've gotten a little better at predicting hurricane paths, but they're certainly not at the 80% stage yet.
"it's hard to talk about
March 31, 2007 - 10:19 ET by saw the light"it's hard to talk about climate and not talk about global warming."
It sure is, especially if you are a true-blue dyed-in-the-wool chicken little who runs around screaming, "The sky is falling!" because a storm system spawned tornadoes.
The City of St. Louis was hit by a devastating tornado which killed many (200+?). Anybody hear of it? It happened in the 1890's! Not a lot of SUVs back then!
"People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news." - A.J. Liebling
Tornado alley
March 31, 2007 - 12:43 ET by nkviking75Friday was certainly a busy day, but in my experience living in tornado alley, hardly unprecedented. The MSM would be better off to just report the storms and their aftermath and stop worrying about whether they're evidence for global warming. If the experts don't understand it, the average TV anchor won't.
The sun is offended when we wear sun glasses.
April 1, 2007 - 08:55 ET by onceadadThe sun is offended when we wear sun glasses.
That's why we have rainy days. The sun is sending a message.
Two great sites.
http://www.crm114.com/algore/quiz.html
http://www.sitewave.net/pproject/listbystate.htm
I can understand the poor and the stupid voting for Marxism or one of it's fashionable variants. If you have no hope of being other than a slave, you may as well opt for the most efficient form of slavery. P.D. James
The second link is a list of
April 1, 2007 - 09:50 ET by dahliatraversThe second link is a list of signers to a petition that questions AGW. (Look at all the PhD's!). Excerpt from the petition:
The United States is very close to adopting an international agreement that would ration the use of energy and of technologies that depend upon coal, oil, and natural gas and some other organic compounds.
This treaty is, in our opinion, based upon flawed ideas. Research data on climate change do not show that human use of hydrocarbons is harmful. To the contrary, there is good evidence that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is environmentally helpful.
The proposed agreement would have very negative effects upon the technology of nations throughout the world, especially those that are currently attempting to lift from poverty and provide opportunities to the over 4 billion people in technologically underdeveloped countries.
a dot of tornado history for Harry
March 31, 2007 - 13:54 ET by Gary HallOK, I'll post it again - one would think that Harry Smith is old enough to remember.
The following is a brief summary of tornado highlights from a USA Today article in May of 2005 (a little editing and highlighting added). Note the 1965 and 1974 outbreaks, as that is smack in the middle of the last little period of "global cooling" (when the scientists were predicting the coming ice age). Yes Harry, it's been warming up since then, just as it was cooling down prior to then.
The 1925 event on the bottom of the list is difficult to imagine - 689 people killed. I suspect that some 80 years ago the earth must have been about 0.8 degrees cooler (seeing as the temp has risen 1 degree in the last 100)?
May 1-10, 2003: Record number of tornadoes hit the USA.
Nov. 10, 2002: Tornadoes from the Gulf of Mexico Coast to the Great Lakes kill 16 people in Tennessee, 12 in Alabama, 5 in Ohio, and 1 each in Mississippi and Pennsylvania. .
May 3-6, 1999: Tornadoes kill 44 people in Oklahoma, 5 in Kansas, 1 in Texas, and 4 in Tennessee.
May 27-28: 1994: Palm Sunday Outbreak. Tornadoes kill 44 people in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
May 31. 1985: Tornadoes kill 76 people in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
March 28, 1984: Tornadoes kill 57 people in North Carolina and South Carolina.
April 10, 1979: Tornadoes kill 53 in Texas and 3 in Oklahoma.
April 10, 1979: Wichita Falls, Texas, tornado led to safety changes.
April 3 -4, 1974: Super Outbreak, the worst in U.S. history. 148 tornadoes kill 330 people in 13 states – Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
April 11 -12, 1965: Tornadoes kill 256 people in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana , Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
March 18, 1925: The Tri-State tornado kills 689 people in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri [Dorothy had the ride of her life, over in Kansas]
Clearly, 1925 and 1974 were a
March 31, 2007 - 15:38 ET by dahliatraversClearly, 1925 and 1974 were anomalies. Tornadoes are a symptom of global warming; Katie said so.
another MSM cliche to wear out
March 31, 2007 - 16:10 ET by Jnoble"Is this a sign of global warming?" is now standard practice to ask after almost any weather related story. It's become comical to me. Harry Smith, you useful idiot....
Harry Smith could have just
March 31, 2007 - 17:27 ET by radiofitz34Harry Smith could have just as easily said, "this segment is brought to you by Global Warming". Yes that's right friends, just leave your house and run like hell. Just go to Mexico. I hear there's a shortage of itinerant workers there. That's cause most of them are here in the US.
Any chance they get, the MSM will PROMOTE global warming. Look at as an ugly ad campain. That's what it is.
So...........tornadoes did no
March 31, 2007 - 20:03 ET by Scout FinchSo...........tornadoes did not frequently occur until GW was established? Huh? I grew up in Michigan, in tornedo alley. I am very knowledgable of the counties in Miichigan where tornadoes frequently formed and destructed property. Monroe, Washtenaw, Lenawee, Shiawassee, and Lapeer counties (I currently live in Lapeer co.) were the top five "tornado" counties when I was a kid. These Henny Pennies know of no current history past the new millenium. Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to live through it again. In other words, grow some skin and get over it.