Science of…Super Storms
2011 has been the deadliest tornado year in over 50 years. Already 1,151 twisters have formed and cut a wide swath of destruction across many states. That is more than double the average. And 481 people have died as a result of severe weather this year. That is more than six times the average and makes it the deadliest season since 1953.
Joplin, Missouri is the latest urban center to be demolished, following a very rare April tornado outbreak that leveled Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Stan Gedzelman, a meteorologist at the City College of New York doesn’t see anything unusual in this year’s weather pattern that would indicate an especially severe weather spring. He also believes the warning system is performing as well as it could, giving residents up to 20 minutes to prepare for an incoming tornado.
But he says the instability in the atmosphere that allows these super storms to form is just about as large as he’s ever seen.
Tornadic activity occurs when cool dry air from the north collides with warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. That convergences creates convection as cold air sinks and warm air rises. Spinning storm cells can spit out tornadoes.
The Joplin tornado was an F-4 tornado with winds approaching 200 miles per hour that cut a six-mile long debris track three-quarters-of-a-mile wide through a suburban and commercial area of the city of 47,000 in the southwest corner Missouri.
The Associated Press science reporter Randy Schmid explains why the Joplin tornado was so destructive.
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