Updated tornado trends

I took NOAA's data and made a bar chart. The first bar is an average number of tornadoes for the last ten years. Compare that graph to this year's number. Wow.

The intervening bars are the three previous year tornado count.

Yikes.

I did this because unlike the previous two NOAA graphs of tornado trends, NOAA has diluted the graphical presentation by muddying it with additional and extraneous data. I took the actual data and presented the information more cleanly so the truth of the situation is more visible.

The Sichuan Earthquake, many photos

Incredible, heartbreaking photo array of The Sichuan Earthquake. I pray for these poor citizens, and for the brothers and sisters in Myanmar, and those in the US who have been so affected this week from the terrible disasters and storms.

Keep in mind these photos are not of the epicenter...but of surrounding areas...and yet these are already not for those who lack compassion. God only knows of the horrors at earthquake ground zero.

who canya believe?

Scientist: Recent Natural Disasters Perfectly Normal
"Myanmar cyclone. The earthquake off the coast of Japan. The Chilean volcano. Has Earth gone bonkers? Not at all. This level of natural activity is normal for Earth, scientists say."

HUH??

The story goes on: "That also means the recent Midwestern quake (centered in Illinois) and temblors near Reno, Nev., though unnerving and frightening to locals, were just another day for Planet Earth...said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told LiveScience..."

Unnerving, frightening, but just another day?? Me no think so.


Well, the tornado data shows us that things are abnormal. A fast start to this year's season indicates that it's not just a regular day on good ole earth. There have been more tornadoes than usual. Additionally, those tornadoes have been killers: there are as many dead so far, a little less than halfway through, than there are in a regular total season. Bodes ill.

Earthquakes: last year for the first time in recorded history there were four times as many magnitude 8 and higher. This is statistically significant. Annually there is only 1 8.0+ eq per year. hand count of all 8.0+ since 1900 (year of beginning records) show many years with zero. Then, in 2007 there were 4.

As for ocean storms, this scientist claims the following in an article in a Science Tech newsletter: Earthquake sensors track rise in ocean storms All 22 stations examined showed a "systematic increase" in the number of storm-caused microseisms over the last two decades, says Aster.

The Emergency Events Database bears this out. Global disasters from 1900 to 2007 have been steadily increasing.


In the face of the data, I tend to think the first scientist quoted above should take off his rose colored glasses.

tornados stink

I'm used to slow moving weather catastrophes. The large, lumbering kind that you can see coming for days at a time. The kind you go out and buy milk and bread for. The type where you glance out the window, looking for the first snowflake or raindrop, and then return to business as usual. Where the weathermen put on sweaters and talk about inches of predicted precipitation, in between sips of coffee and graphics of isobar charts.

That was Maine.

Here in Georgia, the storms are tornados and the warning comes in as little as 8 minutes, as those in the Georgia Dome Friday night will attest. Or Saturday in Madison County, about ten minutes. We stayed glued to the tv all day, watching the progression of tornado watches change to warnings and the actual storms traverse the northern portion of the state, one after another. Many of them, thankfully, scooted below Madison County or north of us, but a few did hit here. At one point the tv guy said that there was circular motion at Transco, 3 miles away. They can go right down to the street level and so when he said that and we looked out and saw the sky darkened and hail hitting the metal roof, we said, well, let's go. We went into the closet, & thought, 'OK, this is it.'

Photos: which would you prefer, the backyard with tree house in snow, or the doom over Atlanta?

I cannot say I am a fan of the tornado as natural catastrophes go. You can't see them coming and they dodge and weave. Blizzards and hurricanes lumber in a line that is well-tracked and they gear up slowly. Tornados are wiry, snaky little buggers and all I can say is, I can't wait for tornado season to be over.