Tornadoes on the East Coast May Be a Sign of Things to Come

New York Times ^ | August 8, 2018 | By Kendra Pierre-Louis

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A tornado, albeit a weak one, touched down in New York City last Thursday, in the College Point neighborhood of Queens. A few days earlier, a stronger tornado was spotted near the town of Douglas, in central Massachusetts.

The storms were far from the region in the middle of the country known as Tornado Alley, where the bulk of the nation’s tornadoes occur. In a summer already marked by simmering heat that researchers have linked to global warming, is climate change also making tornadoes more common in places where they once were infrequent?

Though individual weather events are distinct from the more broadly changing climate, global warming does influence weather patterns. Still, any link between climate change and the frequency of tornadoes is far from straightforward, according to researchers.

Though it’s not possible to quantify to what degree, if any, climate change played a role in the tornadoes in New York and Massachusetts, researchers have some inkling into how climate change will affect tornadoes more broadly.

When scientists run climate models assuming global average temperatures of one degree Celsius (two degrees Fahrenheit) higher than preindustrial levels - where the Earth currently stands - some show an uptick in tornado frequency, but others do not. That disagreement, however, fades away at two degrees Celsius of warming, the threshold that the Paris climate agreement is intended to avoid. All the models agree that the frequency of tornadoes will increase by that point.

[ExNewsExSpook]

I remember being in New Hampshire on business on 1 June 2011, a day when an EF-3 tornado struck Springfield, MA and several other twisters were reported in other parts of New England.

Based on coverage from the Boston TV stations, you’d have thought Armageddon was at hand—or at a minimum, it was a latter-day version of the Great Tri-State Tornado of 1925. As someone who grew up in the Mid-South, and spent much of my life in tornado country, it was funny watching the Yankees get flustered. I’ve often said it’s a good thing tornadoes are rare in New York City because if that metropolis faced the tornado threat of say, Oklahoma City, the media hysteria would be off the charts.

[JME_FAN]

That is not a photo from the Worcester MA - Shrewsbury MA tornado of June 9, 1953. That is the Windsor Locks, CT storm, which occurred October 3, 1979.

[2CAVTrooper]

Damn...

A B-17, B-29, B-47, E-1 Tracer, C-144, P-2 Neptune, a second B-29 maybe? A-3 Skywarrior, B-25, B-57, C-47, HU-16 Albatross, C-119, an A-4?, And possibly a Hellcat, and a P-3 in that pic.

[2CAVTrooper]

“Windsor Locks, CT storm, which occurred October 3, 1979.”

That explains why the C-47 (flipped upside down near the crane) has the SouthEast Asia camo scheme.

[JME_FAN]

My Mom was single at the time, and she was riding a Worcester City bus, coming down Rte 9 (Boston Turnpike) from Shrewsbury across the Lake Quinsigamond Bridge. She saw the tornado crossing the lake, and said “that’s a funny looking cloud.” She had never seen a tornado before that day, so she had no idea what it was. My parents always talked about that storm.

[ExNewsExSpook]

Ironically, that was the first year the Weather Bureau (forerunner of today’s National Weather Service) allowed forecasters to use the term “tornadoes” in their products. On the day of the Worcester storm, the Boston office recognized the potential tornadic threat, but decided that including it in their forecast might cause public panic. So, as a compromise, they issued the first-ever severe thunderstorm warning for New England.

I’ve heard reports that after the Worcester tornado was on the ground, the Boston weather bureau received several phone calls on the storm from police and the public. Weather radar was in its infancy, and with no additional confirmation, the weather bureau decided not to issue a tornado warning. So, more people died as the twister continued on its path. To be fair, any warning would have been minimally accurate and might have created panic. Then again, some warning is better than no warning, one reason so many people died that day.

[Buckeye McFrog]

We are being invaded by the Godless....tornadoes.
Citizens are advised to arm themselves immediately.

[EdnaMode]

It’s a twister Auntie Em!!!

[hadaclueonce]

Y’all live in a wide big pile.
A stiff breeze is all it will take.

[jetson]

Magnetic fields are moving.

[Texas resident]

No, it is George W. Bush’s fault.

Remember he had a Hurricane machine that intentionally targeted democrat voters in New Orleans?

Dick Cheney had a hand in it also.

I gotta get me one of those machines.

[StormEye]

In my lifetime there have always been tornadoes on the East Coast.
They come and go with the thunderstorms in the summer.
They are not as frequent as in the Midwest.
The whole article is nothing but hype.

[elbook]

simply need to look up references to ‘waterspouts’ in the new englad area for the last 100 years

NTY - is fecal matter now, when merely was what was USED to line the birdcage

[rlmorel]

Good catch-you are 100% correct, it was on the same page as an article about the 1953 tornado and I conflated them...appreciate the correction.

[rlmorel]

I know...as an aviation buff, all you can do is look at it and shake your head.

Sigh.

The same feeling I get when I think of those stories I have heard of carriers out in the Pacific coming home after the end of the war, and shoving planes off the sides of the ships. Don’t know if it is true, but the thought is repulsive to me!

[texas booster]

This is still one of my favorite tornado maps.

[BwanaNdege]

Great Map!

Data from Map, "Crunched"

New York has more tornadoes per square mile than 20 other States, Connecticut than 22 and even Maine more than 8!

Note: "[Number Tornadoes per Sq. Mi. * 1,000]" is formatted as Percentage, for clarity.

State	Rank	sq mi	Tornadoes	[Number Tornadoes per Sq. Mi. * 1,000]	Rank
Kansas	15	82,278.36	92.4	112%	1
Oklahoma	20	69,898.87	65.4	94%	2
Illinois	25	57,913.55	54	93%	3
Mississippi	32	48,431.78	45.1	93%	4
Alabama	30	52,420.07	47.1	90%	5
Iowa	26	56,272.81	49.2	87%	6
Florida	22	65,757.70	54.6	83%	7
Maryland	42	12,405.93	9.9	80%	8
Louisiana	31	52,378.13	39.6	76%	9
South Carolina	40	32,020.49	23.3	73%	10
Arkansas	29	53,178.55	38.2	72%	11
Nebraska	16	77,347.81	54.6	71%	12
Tennessee	36	42,144.25	29.1	69%	13
Indiana	38	36,419.55	24.6	68%	14
Missouri	21	69,706.99	46.7	67%	15
Kentucky	37	40,407.80	24.2	60%	16
Texas	2	268,596.46	146.7	55%	17
North Carolina	28	53,819.16	29.1	54%	18
Georgia	24	59,425.15	29.4	49%	19
Minnesota	12	86,935.83	41.9	48%	20
Colorado	8	104,093.67	49.5	48%	21
Ohio	34	44,825.58	19.2	43%	22
South Dakota	17	77,115.68	32.6	42%	23
Virginia	35	42,774.93	17.7	41%	24
Delaware	49	2,488.72	1	40%	25
Wisconsin	23	65,496.38	23.5	36%	26
Pennsylvania	33	46,054.35	16	35%	27
Connecticut	48	5,543.41	1.6	29%	28
New Jersey	47	8,722.58	2	23%	29
New York	27	54,554.98	9.6	18%	30
Michigan	11	96,713.51	14.7	15%	31
Massachusetts	44	10,554.39	1.4	13%	32
Rhode Island	50	1,544.89	0.2	13%	33
Wyoming	10	97,813.01	10.9	11%	34
West Virginia	41	24,230.04	2.4	10%	35
New Hampshire	46	9,349.16	0.8	9%	36
New Mexico	5	121,590.30	9.7	8%	37
California	3	163,696.32	10.6	6%	38
Montana	4	147,039.71	9.3	6%	39
Vermont	45	9,616.36	0.6	6%	40
Idaho	14	83,568.95	4.8	6%	41
Maine	39	35,379.74	2	6%	42
North Dakota	19	70,698.32	3.1	4%	43
Arizona	6	113,990.30	4.6	4%	44
Washington	18	71,297.95	2.5	4%	45
Utah	13	84,896.88	2.5	3%	46
Oregon	9	98,378.54	2.8	3%	47
Nevada	7	110,571.82	1.9	2%	48
Alaska	1	665,384.04		0%	49
Hawaii	43	10,931.72		0%	50
District of Columbia		68.34		0%	51

[rlmorel]

Can’t imagine that. I was just on that bridge on Monday...:)

Devastation a mile wide. Just astonishing.

[mfish13]

In 1992 two tornadoes touched down in New York City during the time Bill Clinton was being nominated by the Democrats for the Presidency.

[Constitution Day]

LOL!