Staggering, Astonishing, Incredible Weather

From USA Today, without mentioning climate change –though it does from time to time– ran this Wake UP! article earlier this week.

Meteorologists used the terms “staggering,” “astonishing” and “incredible” to describe the heat across the eastern two-thirds of the nation that set thousands of temperature records for March in cities and towns from the Dakotas to Maine to Florida.

“It’s almost like science fiction,” weather historian Christopher Burt of the private forecasting company Weather Underground reported last month.

 

and

“Across the nation, over 7,500 daily record-high temperatures were set in March 2012,” Weather Channel meteorologist Chris Dolce reported.

As if that were not enough, in another article, this:

It’s not just the “Tornado Alley” any more. Tornadoes are striking in more parts of the U.S., more often, a new study shows.

Experts are enlarging the area of the U.S. they believe is regularly in the path of severe storms, tornadoes, and hail damage, according to a report from CoreLogic.

Tornadoes and the storms that generate them account for 57% of insured catastrophic losses in the U.S. each year. New analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association shows that these storms are probably increasing in frequency, and the region of the country where they strike is growing as well.

Rare January Tornadoes In Alabama

From Jeff Masters at Wunderground.com

The calendar says it’s the coldest month of winter, but today’s weather is more typical of March, as a vigorous spring-like storm system has spawned a rare and deadly January tornado outbreak. Twenty tornadoes were reported in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee last night and this morning, killing at least two, injuring 100, and causing major damage.

…during the 61-year period 1950 – 2010, 1223 January tornadoes occurred–an average of twenty per year. There have been two Januarys with no reported tornadoes–2003 and 1986. Thus far in 2012, there have been 44 preliminary tornado reports, so we are already at double the historical January average, with a week still to go in the month.

In my opinion this is God talking to the good people of Alabama:  Wake up!  Wake way up!  The pot is boiling and you gotta turn the heat down!