Killer tornadoes stalk Midwest: Romney denies climate change science
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Let’s face it extreme weather turns climate change from an abstract concept about remote events, such as melting ice and drowning polar bears, to a concrete, often calamitous, experience for many Americans.
Despite the hours and hours of air time and pixels devoted to covering heat waves, floods, storms, and wildfires in recent months, there has been very little discussion of the increasingly clear links to climate change, partly because of wealthy and influential politicians such as Mitt Romney, among others, who, looking for political expediency, have publicly denied the science. No wonder only about half of Americans understand that global warming is making heat waves, floods, tornadoes, droughts, and wildfires worse, much worse as many parts of the country have already found out.
A “high-end, life-threatening” tornado outbreak is likely on Saturday from Texas northeastward to Iowa, with Kansas and Oklahoma at the greatest risk for powerful tornadoes, and another area of heightened risk in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, according to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC).
Cities under the greatest tornado threat include Oklahoma City, Okla., Omaha, Neb., and Wichita, Kan. That National Weather Service forecast offices in those two cities have prepared multimedia forecast briefings to discuss the tornado threats in greater detail.The SPC, which is part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), issued a rare “high risk” outlook for severe weather more than a day in advance for a swath of Oklahoma and Kansas, with a “moderate risk” covering a broader area from Texas to Iowa.
This is only the second time that a “high risk” has been issued two days in advance, and the first time ever for the “initial day two” forecast, according to a post on SPC’s Facebook page. The only other time a “high risk” outlook was issued for a two-day forecast was for an outbreak on April 7, 2006, when more than 70 tornadoes touched down, killing 13 and causing more than $1 billion in damage.
According to SPC forecasters, on Saturday, a low pressure area in the upper levels of the atmosphere will be moving out of the Four Corners region, as a very powerful jet stream in the mid-levels moves into the central and southern plains. Warm, moist air is expected to surge northward into this area, providing the instability needed to set off severe thunderstorms. A large amount of wind shear, which gives thunderstorms the rotation needed to produce tornadoes, is also forecast to be present. In fact, a forecast discussion on Friday said conditions may be “ideal for strong tornadoes,” as well as for large hail and strong winds. National Weather Service forecast offices were warning residents that tornado risks would extend well after dark on Saturday. The NWS office in Wichita warned: “STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT TORNADOES AFTER DARK SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE THE POTENTIAL FOR LOSS OF LIFE.”
It’s very strange, isn’t it? There’s this big ginormous gorilla called “global warming” sitting in the middle of the room, and yet very few prominent people acknowledge it as such. In the meantime, we’re setting all kinds of records for temperature extremes, yet the only thing we hear out of the Republicans is to insist that the federal government shouldn’t help clean up after weather disasters — the disasters they set up by blocking any kind of regulation that would have helped prevent them from happening.
Many thanks to Blue Press, Crooks&Liars, and Suzie Madrak for their contributions to this story.
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Go figure! The Romulans believe in a sky-daddy that’s invisible and is all powerful, all knowing, all seeing, but when it comes to weather anomalies biting you in the ass at every corner they shoo it away like it was a fly and deny it was even there. Illogic vs logic.