State climatologist Barry Keim said there were 62 reports of tornadoes across seven states over two days this week—21 in Louisiana, and he believes the warm weather played a big role.
“This situation is caused by incredibly excessive heat and humidity and of course, we’ve had a lot of that lately, in fact, the temperatures have been running anywhere from 15 to 20 degrees above normal,” Keim said.
But Keim said it’s hard to know exactly how many tornadoes there were because there were likely multiple reports of the same tornadoes but he said December tornado outbreaks are becoming more common.
“Last December we had 232 tornadoes across the eastern united states which is more than double the previous record of 99 tornadoes, set in 2002,” Keim said.
Keim said the usual winter combination of alternating cold and warm fronts increases the chances of tornadoes forming when the air is warmer and more humid than usual. He said when warm moist air mixes with cold high altitude jet stream air it causes vertical motions in the atmosphere, and those can lead to tornadoes.
“ It certainly fits a pattern that makes sense with global warming, and getting all this heat and humidity coming off the Gulf of Mexico later in the season,” Keim said and added the Climate Prediction Center is forecasting a warmer-than-normal winter.
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