Does anyone know what caused the tornado in Vancouver, Washington recently?

Question

its for a project, to see if it has to do with anything about global warming and the economy.

Answer 1

I'm waiting for the predictable global warming answer.  A tornado.  Must be global warming!  Warmer weather.  Must be global warming!  COLDER weather.  Must be global warming.  I lost my car keys. Global warming!  Are we seeing a fundamentally flawed pattern here . . . ?

Answer 2

How would the economy have any thing to do with a tornado???  When there is warm weather & cold mixed it causes them. We had tornadoes last week in Wisconsin(which is nuts this time of year)& unseasonaly warm for January.

Answer 3

First tornadoes in the Pacific Northwest are rare. What caused it was when cold air and warm air collide. Usually that's how tornaodes are formed. Hardly has there been a tornado in Pacific Northwest. Now tornadoes more common in the Midwest,Southwest and Southeast. But tornadoes can happen anywhere. Doubt if global warming generated this rare twister.

Answer 4

Individual weather events are just weather.  Odd local weather happens all the time.

What causes tornadoes?

Thunderstorms develop in warm, moist air in advance of eastward-moving cold fronts. These thunderstorms often produce large hail, strong winds, and tornadoes.

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/torn...

It's possible that global warming may cause an increased occurrence of, or increased strength within, the thunderstorms in some areas, which could spawn more tornados, but you sure can't conclude anything about long term trends from one event.

For economic impact, consider the following reports:

- The Pew Center on Global Climate Change published “U.S. market consequences of global climate change in April 2004 where they estimated that global heating would be, using the most optimistic assumptions, a temporary boost to the U.S. economy by 0.7 to 1% by 2100, but that the most pessimistic assumptions would produce a reduction in GDP of approximately 3.0%. In addition, the benefits are almost exclusively in the agriculture and energy sectors and increasing temperature will ultimately reverse the gains in both sectors.

http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/Mar...

- According to Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Working Group II Contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report - Summary for Policymakers (the full report is not yet available online), droughts will become more common as freshwater from melt and precipitation decreases, 20-30% of plant and animal species will be at increased risk of extinction and acidification of the ocean will adversely affect marine ecosystems, global agricultural productivity will increase slightly and then decrease as temperatures continue to rise, coastal flooding will cause serious problems (especially in Asia), and developing countries will be heavily hit by droughts, disease, and rising sea levels

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM13apr07.pdf

- Lloyd’s of London, a major global insurance company and hardly a hotbed of liberal activism, released this 360 Risk Report titled “Climate Change: Adapt or Bust”. The gist of the report is that climate change is going to cause major losses to insurers if the risks aren’t managed carefully, and that the risks must be managed by working with businesses and governments as well as by updating internal risk models to account for a changing global climate.

http://www.lloyds.com/NR/rdonlyres/38782...

- The CNA Corporation released a report on “National Security and the Threat of Global Climate Change.” The report is somewhat alarmist and the time scales described may be too aggressive, but the point that global heating will cause significant instability and impact U.S. national security is valid nonetheless.

http://securityandclimate.cna.org/report...

- In a Pentagon report titled “An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security,” the authors propose an abrupt climate change situation that is unlikely but plausible and that results in massive food shortages, disruptions in energy supplies, droughts, and possibly even wars over access to fresh water, mass population migrations, and energy.

http://www.climate.org/PDF/clim_change_s...

Answer 5

Barack Obama's win against Hillary in the Ioawa caucus. :)

Answer 6

A storm.