Last night, some western Tennessee and some Arkansas polling places had to be closed early, as I had mentioned, due to the severe weather conditions. After a day in the 70’s a cold front moved in causing some really nasty weather, killing, so far, 45 people, 24 of those deaths in Tennessee.
Tornadoes that roared through parts of Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi killed at least 45 people and injured more than 100 others Tuesday night and early Wednesday, authorities said.
The storms prompted the early closures of polling places and damaged a university, a shopping mall, a retirement home and a hospital.
Tornadoes trapped people in damaged buildings.
One ignited a fire that sent flames shooting hundreds of feet into the night sky.
I say “so far,” because as I write this post, strong storms are moving into Knoxville. The thunder is rumbling the lightening is flashing, and east TN is under a tornado watch until late this morning.
A tornado watch has been issued by the National Weather Service for much of East Tennessee until 11 a.m. today.
A line of severe thunderstorms is barreling toward East Tennessee, bringing possibly damaging winds in excess of 60 mph and hail up to one-quarter inch.
I’m glad for the rain, we are still under drought conditions in this area. But 70 degree weather, early tornadoes, and extensive drought conditions? I’d say that the global warming deniers are loosing their argument.
If you read my blog, you’ll find that I’m convinced that global warming is real, man-made, and dangerous.
That said, I caution against interpreting weather events — even extreme ones — as evidence. They might be; but in order to establish that, the frequency and severity of extreme weather should be studied with statistical rigor.
Let’s step back and think about something. This is not the time of year for tornado outbreaks in the South. That happens in late April and early May. So these storms are two months early. But then we’ve had stong tornados and thudnerstorms in The plains and Midwest in November, December, and January, too. Winter tornados are exceedingly rare. Or, I should say, they used to be. Climatologists have been telling us that one of the first signs of global warming would be severe weather occuring out of season. Well, here we are and they were right. It’s past time for us to be debating the reality of global warming and start doing something about it before it is too late. If it isn’t too late already, that is.
Agreed. I live in Ohio and as far as I can remember, Ohio was always covered in snow like weather from Jan-March. Its now Early Feb 2008 and its warm and rainy. The deniers of global warming didnt anticipate WEATHER PATTERN CHANGES happening so quickly and how much those would affect the globe and especially the US.
Think about, everything we have on the planet RELIES ON and IS BASED on predictable weather patterns. Our Great Lakes and water reservoir levels are based on continued, predicted weather patterns; rain in particular. Now that the heating of the planet has caused a rise in se
The results of that: rain doesnt come down where it use to come down so now we are seeing our lakes drying up.
We’re seeing floods in areas where they typically didnt occurr and happening more often. The state govt yesterday issued flood warnings in Ohio (in the middle of winter??) Doesnt that make any sense? Of course not, weather pattern changes are causing that..
Tornadoes typically developed in areas where a lot of people didnt live (like the Kansas dust bowl region) but now are occurring more frequently in areas where there is heavy populations. I’d love to see the stats on the number of killer tornadoes in KY, TN and AL for the last 100 years to see how those stats compared to last nights extreme weather patterns in those states.
Doesnt it seem unusual that our summers are getting hotter? I predict the next coming summers will be so hot, that many more people will die from heat than any other time in our history. Plus, in five years, it will most likely be impossible to stay outside in the southern states if not the mid section of the US.
And the problem is that the hot summers will accelerate the global warming process 10 fold EACH SUMMER (not 50-100 yrs down the road) since more heat produces more melting of the polar caps. Our rain and moisture content is based on sea levels and the exact mixture of salt water to fresh water ratios. That mixture is completely out of balance with the melting of the caps and now the extra moisture is causing cyclical changes in our weather patterns.
President Bush and anyone else that tried to deny the affects of global warming thought they could push this off to a generation of people 50-100 yrs down the road but will find that their own lives are going to change for the worst very soon because it doesnt matter how rich you are as we go fourth with global warming. Thats because no amount of money is going to protect anyone from the weather pattern changes. Bush and Cheney are not going to be able to avoid this results of the weather pattern changes and thus retire in a comfortable setting as they imagined while they denied the US involvement in reduction of greenhouse gases: particularly CARBON. They are going to feel the sting of weather pattern changes where ever they are. It will be completely impossible within 5 years to avoid the living conditions on this planet by anyone.
Guess what the most fought over resource will be in 5 yrs? It wont be oil. It will be water because as these weather patterns change, they will dry up the great lakes very soon and thus deplete our major water supplies. Mark my words, WATER will be key to surviving these weather pattern changes for our future kids because our water supply is BASED on predicted weather patterns that are quickly becoming unpredictable.
I am not trying to be an alarmist. Just look at the data.
thought of you when the news came about this awful weather and the death and destruction it brought. hope you and yours are okay. yours, naomi
Thanks for thinking of us, Naomi.