Naysayers like to hold up chilly days during warm weather months as proof that climate change is hooey.
Most scientists — trained to observe and analyze before reaching conclusions — think to the contrary and one weather pattern in Kansas this year may be tallied to their side of the ledger.
Kansas had more tornadoes this year than normal. Fifteen touched down during November alone.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center reported the stretch was the first time in more than 50 years that tornadoes had landed in northwest Kansas that late in the year.
While more tornadoes than is usual isn’t good news — nationwide 1,150 occurred the first 10 months of 2015, 179 more than normal — it is good news that many were not behemoths that ripped across the country and caused great damage and loss of life.
Dodge City and Mon-tezuma, in southwest Kansas, led a charmed life in November. An EF-3, with winds in excess of 155 mph, was on the ground for 50 minutes, headed directly toward Dodge City. Instead, it veered in the direction of Montezuma, a town of about 1,000, lifting up just in the nick of time.
That November recorded tornadoes is significant in relation to climate change. They are the result of supercell thunderstorms, an ingredient of which is warm air. November is rarely warm enough in Kansas to spur such activity — until now.
— Bob Johnson
NWK tornadoes tell climate story
