What Climate Change?
Dr Masters started the day with a recap of Sunday’s tornadoes: Tornadoes Slam 5-State Area, Killing Two; Outbreak Continues Today. Among those tornadoes was an EF-5 that touched down in Shawnee, Oklahoma. EF-5 tornadoes have winds in excess of 200 mph.
The National Weather Service warned that conditions were ripe for another outbreak of tornadoes today, and they were right.
This evening’s post: Violent tornado devastates Moore, Oklahoma
…There have been only six billion-dollar (2011 dollars) tornadoes in history:
1) Joplin, Missouri, May 22, 2011, $2.8 billion
2) Topeka, Kansas, June 8, 1966, $1.7 billion
3) Lubbock, Texas, May 11, 19780, $1.5 billion
4) Bridge Creek-Moore, Oklahoma, May 3, 1999, $1.4 billion
5) Xenia, Ohio, April 3, 1974, $1.1 billion
6) Omaha, Nebraska, May 6, 1975, $1 billionThe May 3, 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado killed 36 people and injured 583. It damaged or destroyed 8132 homes, 1041 apartments, 260 businesses, 11 public buildings and seven churches. According to rough estimates of the size of the damaged area made by helicopters operated by news9.com and kfor.com, the damage footprint from the May 20, 2013 tornado is easily twice as large. I expect that after the damage tally from the May 20 tornado is added up, Moore will hold two of the top five spots on the list of most damaging tornadoes in history, and the May 20 tornado may approach the Joplin tornado as the costliest twister of all-time.
What’s it going to take before people start taking the weather shifts seriously? How much damage? How many deaths?
