The horrific devastation witnessed this weekend in five states caused by tornado activity, leaving scores dead, is a tragedy no matter how you slice it. The record-breaking storms could rival those of decades ago in terms of the trail of destruction with towns wiped out, buildings demolished, and residents dealing with shattered lives. These residents need prayer and support, both financially and otherwise. What they do not need is a push from the Biden administration that uses tornados as an excuse to pass legislation, like the Green New Deal, as some kind of answer to uncontrollable cyclical weather patterns.
Immediately following news of the devastation, Biden’s FEMA director was warning about these kinds of storms as “the new normal” and indicating that climate change would be the existential crisis of our generation causing more storms like this unless we act:
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell laid blame on climate change for the deadly tornado outbreak over the weekend, claiming such disasters will be the “new normal” from now on.
“This is going to be our new normal,” Criswell said during an appearance on CNN Sunday. “The effects we are seeing of climate change are the crisis of our generation,” Criswell said. “We’re taking a lot of efforts at FEMA to work with communities to help reduce the impacts that we’re seeing from these severe weather events and help to develop system-wide projects that can help protect communities.”
The only problem with Criswell’s statement is that there is no data to back up an assertion that extreme tornadic activity is some kind of “new normal.” The opposite is true, in fact, with December tornadoes occurring rarely, but not in an unprecedented way.
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1470202094644776962
The President hedged his statements slightly over the weekend, saying it was too early to tell if climate change was causing more severe storms, but then went ahead and said everything is more intense regardless of what the data says so we better do something:
“The specific impact on these specific storms, I can’t say at this point. I’m going to be asking the EPA and others to take a look at that,” the president said in an afternoon briefing in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware.
“But the fact is that we know everything is more intense when the climate is warming. And obviously it has some impact here.”
In other words, says Biden, even if these specific tornados weren’t fueled by climate change, we need to pass some green agenda to deal with it in the future. So there.
What does the actual data say about tornados? The charts might shock you, or might not, depending on if you’ve been paying attention. For years now, climate change alarmists have been forecasting seasons with “record numbers” of hurricanes, tornados, and any severe weather event you can imagine. Then, in reality, we’ve had some years of lighter activity in direct contradiction to forecasts. There are always exception years when ocean patterns and wind patterns line up to produce severe weather events outside the norm, but that has happened since the literal beginning of time.
Here’s the chart of EF1 to EF5 tornados from 1954 to 2020, a blip on the map of human history. The trend line is alarmingly predictable from that time period:
I have updated the U.S. annual EF-1+ tornado count with the latest data. This isn’t final, I will update accordingly as the NWS continues to analyze data from the tornado outbreak. This graph is particularly more important now that it’s no longer available on NOAA NCEI. pic.twitter.com/HwAdOrO4yG
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) December 13, 2021
Despite more ability to measure and detect tornados today, the United States witnessed higher intensity and more frequent activity in the 1970s than in the past decade. That doesn’t stop climate change alarmists from using everyday weather events to push an agenda of more government control and spending, unfortunately. People live in the here and now, and if there is bad weather on the news, well then it MUST be climate change!
What about this unseasonably warm December we’re having? Again, not unprecedented:
December is off to an anomalously warm start, the warmest since 2012.
1939, 1946, 1998 and 2001 were also warmer. pic.twitter.com/qT0x4zWhgt
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) December 13, 2021
Does anyone truly believe that passing something like the Green New Deal to destroy the economy would prevent cyclical weather events from occurring? I don’t even think the true believers think that, but they use weather disasters to scare people anyway.
As for the “new normal” predicted by Biden’s FEMA director, the data doesn’t back that statement up. The reality is that the short-term alarmism regarding increased severe weather events predicted by climate activists simply hasn’t happened. You would think maybe their models would be re-tooled to account for periods when they over-predicted severe weather, but that never seems to be the case.
These types of severe and deadly events unfortunately happen, they are not “unprecedented” as the Biden administration suggests:
https://twitter.com/BinghamBrad/status/1469784867861053440
As experts would tell you, however, “weather” and “climate” are not the same thing. That is true, so perhaps someone should tell Democrats to stop using “weather” as a means to scare people into supporting a “climate” agenda.
When the data doesn’t support their claims, they undercut their own arguments when they immediately politicize the weather.
Find a reputable charity of your choice and send some love to your fellow citizens in Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois. Many of them will need it this holiday season as they rebuild from the devastation.
