NBC’s Al Roker: Climate change bringing tornadoes to urban areas

[Geee]

Daily Caller:

As the brutal spring weather continues to wreak havoc on different parts of the country, some are searching for a cause behind it, especially the tornadoes that devastated Joplin, Mo. on Sunday.

On Monday’s “Martin Bashir Show” program on MSNBC, “Today” weatherman Al Roker had a theory on what’s behind the weather. Broadcasting live from the site of St. John’s Hospital in Joplin that took a hard hit from Sunday’s weather, Roker assessed the tornado that hit Joplin to be on the top-end of the Fujita Scale.

“Well you know the National Weather Service is probably on the ground now and they will assess the damage,” Roker said. “Some people are saying an EF3. I would put this probably between an EF4 and EF5, which is the top of the Fujita Scale.”

Roker also offered a theory on why tornadoes are seemingly touching down in more urban areas as of late. His answer: Climate change.

“And you know look – yesterday, or the day before yesterday, we had the tornado in Minneapolis,” Roker said. “We have had these tornadoes and earlier this week we had a tornado in Philadelphia. And so, you know our weather, or climate change is such now that we are seeing this kind of weather not just in rural parts of our country, but in urban centers as well.”

[Evad]

More unsupported hoax-ism.

[clearvision]

Well I don't think this has been a particular hot spring, record wise. So I wonder how those tornadoes know that it was warmer a few years back. Also wonder how a tornado can pick out an urban area to attack. I guess there could be a connection to the city urban heat effect caused by all the concrete/asphalt/buildings but I don't know that anyone has ever studied that.

[Argyle58]

Well I don't think this has been a particular hot spring, record wise. So I wonder how those tornadoes know that it was warmer a few years back. Also wonder how a tornado can pick out an urban area to attack. I guess there could be a connection to the city urban heat effect caused by all the concrete/asphalt/buildings but I don't know that anyone has ever studied that.

 

Yes, they have studied it. Conclusion is that tornadoes strike rural areas more than urban areas on the same statistical model as the ratio to land area. There is no scientific basis for any other reasoning.

[Pepper]

The upper air is cooler than average, per Joe Bastardi

 

We are now in a La Niña year.

"El Niño years taken regardless of strength are characterized by lower than average total tornadoes, fewer that average violent tornadoes, and lower than average chance of a tornado outbreak with 40 tornadoes or more.

 

Conversely, the strongest La Niña years in the United States are characterized by a higher than average number of total tornadoes, more violent tornadoes, and a good possibility of having an outbreak of 40 or more tornadoes."

 

 

See

 

http://pielkeclimatesci.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/nr-141.pdf

 

"La Niña" events between 1950 and 2011

 

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Niña

[pollyannaish]

I would just like to say this very clearly:

 

I believe in climate change.

 

(We used to call it weather in the olden days.)

 

And mankind has no control...or contribution to it.

[SrWoodchuck]

200 years ago......when no one thought to measure the climate changes weather patterns, in central & midwest America......Indians blamed the "wind gods." Al Roker, you should know, it's racist to assume otherwise!

[Sanguine]

I wonder what we blamed bad weather on before we invented AGW?

[Pepper]

BTTT to your Wind Gods

 

SrWoodChuck

 

Al Roker could simply use Wikipedia and be confounded.

 

 

There are many different gods of wind in different religions:

 

* Aeolus, the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology.

* Anemoi, the Greek wind gods Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and Zephyrus.

* Ehecatl, one of the creator gods in Mesoamerican creation myths documented for pre-Columbian central Mexican cultures, such as the Aztec.

* Fūjin, the Japanese wind god and one of the eldest Shinto gods. According to legend, he was present at the creation of the world and first let the winds out of his bag to clear the world of mist.

* Njord, in Norse mythology, is the god of the wind. There are also four dvärgar (Norse dwarves), named Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri, and probably the four stags of Yggdrasil, personify the four winds, and parallel the four Greek wind gods.

* Pazuzu, the demon of the South-West wind and son of the god Hanbi in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology.

* Stribog is the name of the Slavic god of winds, sky and air. He is said to be the ancestor (grandfather) of the winds of the eight directions.

* Vayu, the Hindu God of Wind, Hanuman's father.

* Venti, the Roman gods of the winds, were essentially renamed Anemoi, borrowed from the Greeks.

* Feng Bo, the Chinese wind god, Feng Po is the name for the human form of Fei Lian.

* Amun, Egyptian god of creation and the wind

* Shu, Egyptian god of the wind and air

* Enlil, Mesopotamian god of breath, wind, loft, and breadth

* Tāwhirimātea, Māori god of weather, including thunder and lightning, wind, clouds and storms

 

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_god

[Argyle58]

BTTT to your Wind Gods

 

SrWoodChuck

 

Al Roker could simply use Wikipedia and be confounded.

 

 

There are many different gods of wind in different religions:

 

* Aeolus, the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology.

* Anemoi, the Greek wind gods Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and Zephyrus.

* Ehecatl, one of the creator gods in Mesoamerican creation myths documented for pre-Columbian central Mexican cultures, such as the Aztec.

* Fūjin, the Japanese wind god and one of the eldest Shinto gods. According to legend, he was present at the creation of the world and first let the winds out of his bag to clear the world of mist.

* Njord, in Norse mythology, is the god of the wind. There are also four dvärgar (Norse dwarves), named Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri, and probably the four stags of Yggdrasil, personify the four winds, and parallel the four Greek wind gods.

* Pazuzu, the demon of the South-West wind and son of the god Hanbi in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology.

* Stribog is the name of the Slavic god of winds, sky and air. He is said to be the ancestor (grandfather) of the winds of the eight directions.

* Vayu, the Hindu God of Wind, Hanuman's father.

* Venti, the Roman gods of the winds, were essentially renamed Anemoi, borrowed from the Greeks.

* Feng Bo, the Chinese wind god, Feng Po is the name for the human form of Fei Lian.

* Amun, Egyptian god of creation and the wind

* Shu, Egyptian god of the wind and air

* Enlil, Mesopotamian god of breath, wind, loft, and breadth

* Tāwhirimātea, Māori god of weather, including thunder and lightning, wind, clouds and storms

 

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_god

 

You left out Crepitus, God of BREAKING WIND!!