Analysis: Two years ago, 40 tornadoes tore across the South on Dec. 16 and 17, killing three people. But none of these events were as deadly or destructive as what transpired Friday and Saturday. More than 100 people are feared to have been killed.
Only a highly anomalous storm environment could support such an extreme situation. Often, in December, the amount of fuel available to storms is limited, which is why violent tornado outbreaks aren’t more common. But on Friday, temperatures over the zone where the storm erupted were record-setting. The high temperatures, 20 to 30 degrees above normal, fast-forwarded the atmosphere to conditions more typical of April.
The other key ingredient for tornadoes, wind shear, or a turning of winds with altitude, was also present in high quantities on Friday, as it often is in winter. The shear is generated as the jet stream, which separates cold air from warm air, dives into the Lower 48 states.As the highly energetic winter jet stream dived into the central states and collided with this springlike environment, the atmosphere exploded.
Tornadoes tore through at least six states for more than three hours on Dec. 10 and into Dec. 11. Capital Weather Gang’s Mathew Cappucci explains. As temperatures warm because of human-induced climate change during winter, it might mean the odds of such events increase in the future.published in the journal Earth’s Future last month concluded that environments conducive to thunderstorms will increase 5 to 20 percent for every 1.
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