Seems a lot of people both here and nationally are becoming very worried about their safety after the reports of the terrible tornados out in the Midwest. The urge to panic is really not necessary as the highly hyped media reports make it seem far, far worse than it is.
Not that these recent tornados aren’t about as bad as it gets but if science and facts are correct the dangers are highly exaggerated.
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration directly contradict claims that our weather is becoming more severe, more intense. The fact is the data shows that while carbon emissions increased between 1954 and 2014 the numbers of tornados went down.
Through Dec. 11, the numbers were close to record lows, and numbers of severe hail during this time frame were significantly under the average also, (3,714 to the average 7,979) even damaging winds were under the average.
I hope this information helps relieve concerns many may be having about the danger levels.
Can we make long-term projections from any of this? No, of course not but nor can we conclude our planet is either warming or cooling in any such short-term studies some are relying on for political reasons while ignoring the science. Any such conclusions would have to be from data over hundreds of years, not any short periods. That’s just facts, just science.
Those tornados were truly terrible and thousands of our fellow people are in extreme need of all the help they can get. We need to urge both government and private agencies to expedite relief efforts.
A worse time for such disasters to occur is hard to imagine with the coldest parts of the years coming on strong. Time for us to step up and donate what we can to the many charitable organizations that exist to help in such cases.
Please do your part.