The onslaught of wild weather that has battered the USA in recent years — from Hurricane Sandy and deadly tornado outbreaks to extremes of drought and floods — looks to be part of a “new normal” for weather patterns in the U.S., new National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini said Wednesday.
What a load of garbage. Tornado fatalities have been in sharp decline for 90 years.
Droughts used to be much worse.
Contiguous U.S., Palmer Modified Drought Index (PMDI), 36-Month Period Ending in March, 1898-2012
The ten deadliest US floods all occurred below 350 ppm. Louis has absolutely no idea what he is talking about.
Just waiting now for alarmists to jump on the fatality figures and (correctly) point out that warning systems have advanced markedly in the last century, however at the same time failing to mention that the population has also advanced quite markedly, including into the paths of said tornadoes.
OT, and not sure if you’re keeping an eye on the news here in Australia, however in the next few hours we might be finally rid of Gillard, as a leadership challenge is on:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-21/live-coverage-labor-leadership-crisis/4586250
Haven’t seen JoNova yet, but I think she is indicating that useful fools voted gillard back in?
She’s still there until Sept 14. It’s Catch 22 for the ALP. Probably see one of the biggest swings against a government in Australian history. Obama has 6 months before she’s an ex-PM and an ex girlfriend.
😀
Oh and Australia will have an ex-carbon tax!!!
Steven,
Also off topic, but WaPo is looking for a blogger to write at least a dozen pieces a day. Your ship has come in, now you can be funded by BigPaper!
😉
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/wapost-seeks-blogger-write-least-dozen-pieces-day_708730.html
“Big Paper” indeed:
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/fberti/fberti1104/fberti110400016/9221709-one-hundred-dollar-toilet-paper.jpg
🙂
March 18, 1925
The infamous Tri-State Tornado raced 219 miles across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana at an average speed of 62 mph. to become the deadliest single tornado in U.S. history. The storm left 695 people dead, 2,027 injured and an estimated $17 million dollars in damage with 15,000 homes totally leveled.
The twister touched down at 1:01pm 3 miles north-northwest of Ellington, MO and dissipated about 3 miles southwest of Petersburg, IN at 4:30pm local time. 234 people died at Murphysboro, IL; the most tornado fatalities ever at a single city. Of the 500 people in Parrish, IL, only 3 escaped injury. In Indiana the tornado raced across Posey, Gibson, and Pike counties killing 103 people. Not a single structure was left standing at Griffin, IN where there were 52 fatalities. 17 people died in Owensville and 24 fatalities were reported at Princeton. 148 people perished at West Frankfort, IL with 200 people seriously injured. In some places the storm’s path was one mile wide. 16 students at a school in West Frankfort were left unharmed even though the building was leveled and the children were blown 150 yards. Easily an F5 tornado, the forward speed was 73 mph at one point.
A different tornado swept through Harrison County, Indiana near Elizabeth killing four people.
Seven other tornadoes claimed an additional 97 lives on that day.
Lest they make us forget!
tckev–Would be an interesting (though morbid) exercise to model the Tri-State Tornado today (F5 along same path) and estimate fatalities. I haven’t looked at a map of the area but am assuming much higher population today. And an F5? Even in a basement I would think your survival chances would be slim. If it happened today though it would be surely be blamed on CO2.
Many new houses in my area now have a double rebarred poured concrete room in the basement, floor to ceiling poured… after the April 8th, 1998 Carbon Hill tornado, they releases images of the damage, where even basements were sucked clean. When those in church on Wednesday night crawled out, an eerie scene awaited…large trees picked clean of leaves, each holding one or more cars. Still get chills