Tag Archives: tornado

The politics of climate change denial

Why do some people deny the overwhelming science of climate
change in a time when the evidence and analysis is so thorough
and so conclusive that no reputable scientific organization
in the world doubts any longer that humans are changing the climate
of the whole planet for the worse:
because it threatens their political and economic beliefs.

Naomi Klein: Why Climate Change Is So Threatening to Right-Wing Ideologues:



And the reason is that climate change is now seen as an identity issue
on the right. People are defining themselves, like they’re against
abortion, they don’t believe in climate change. It’s part of who
they are.

It’s like denying the earth goes around the sun.
Why would they identify with such a silly thing?
Because of what actually dealing with climate change would mean:

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Is Dixie Alley spreading?

So today we have a report of a tornado at
Poulan (west of Tifton),
tornados in Alabama and west,
and right now the storm is sitting on top of Tallahassee in a circular pattern:

More maps of Dixie Alley from

Is Dixie Alley an extension of Tornado Alley?
by P. Grady Dixon, et al.:

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A new tornado alley?



Just a couple of weeks ago a local elected official told me

“we didn’t live in tornado alley”.
Well, after

today’s storm
in which

apparently there were some tornados to the west before it got here,
the Washington Post remarks on
Mardi Gras storm risk & the new tornado alley:

Despite the lack of historic twister activity around New Orleans,
tornado climatology indicates they become much more common due north
into south central Mississippi and expanding northeast and northwest
from northern Alabama across northern Louisiana, southwest Tennessee
and into eastern Arkansas.

As you can see by the map they posted from a recent study,
one pocket of this new tornado alley, nicknamed Dixie Alley,
is in south Georgia.

The article goes on to quote a different study that said:

…Dixie Alley has the highest frequency of long-track F3 to F5 tornadoes,
making it the most active region in the United States. … Based on this
analysis, colloquial tornado alley fails to represent the areas of highest
activity in the United States, indicating that a more comprehensive
analysis of additional tornado alleys in the United States by the NWS
may be needed in the future.

So yes, we do live in the new tornado alley.

Sure would be nice for people around here to have

NOAA Weather Radios.

-jsq

PS: Nothing but wind and rain on my hill. This time.

Tornado warning: you would have heard this on NOAA Weather Radio

This is what NOAA Weather Radio would tell you right now.
I know this stuff because a friend called and told me to check on the Internet.
But people who can’t afford $21 for a radio don’t have Internet connections;
some don’t have telephones.
When there’s severe weather frequently telephones don’t work, either.

The red line is severe weather heading this way fast:


WCTV reports

Tornado Watch: Severe Weather Expected Throughout Fla. Panhandle:

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