What's up with all the tornados in the U.S.? I've never seen anything like it. What's going on?

Question

What's up with all the tornados in the U.S.? I've never seen anything like it. What's going on?

Answer 1

Maybe we all moved to Kansas! I hope so.....the next stop is the Land of Oz.

Answer 2

It's not global warming and they just seem worse this year,  because if you are in an area that has been hit hard,  it has been a hard year....

Answer 3

This is nothing new - I used to be a tornado chaser when I was a weatherman in the Air Force back in the 70's. This is all typical weather.

Answer 4

Yankeesmann1918 is correct. This year was predicted to be a heavier year for Tornados in the US. Expect to see a few more, especially this month, as the season peaks. One major factor to seeing all this action of Tornados is we now have more spotters in the field than ever before. It has become a favorite hobby these days and with so many Doppler-on-wheels now we are getting great videos, where otherwise in the past, we just never saw as many of them but they were still there. During Tornado season in the mid-west, just a hint of a storm cell and the storm chasers are all over it capturing incredible weather. I love it myself, but of course, I never wish to see anyone hurt as the result of a Tormado. Watching one cutting across open fields in all its glory and beauty is incredibly awesome to watch.

Answer 5

Well this pattern has happened before and has been worse. Tornados, just like any other weather phenomena, go in cycles. Some years, there is a below average amount of tornados, some years are average and there are years you have an above average amount of tornados, or you have a small time frame with a large amount of tornados that occur.

Outbreaks like this have happened before and will definately happen again in the future. Back in 1978 there was the tri-state tornado outbreak were 178 tornadoes hit in a three day span!

Tornado cycles are basically connected with weather patterns. If you have weather patterns where canadian air masses keep on colliding with mexican and gulf air masses and nothing disrupts this, there will be a large amount of tornoados. If these two air masses do not clash with each other often, there won't be too many tornados that occur. Other factors such as the jet stream, el nino and la nina will also effect tornado patterns.