Spatial Redistribution of U.S. Tornado Activity between 1954 and 2013

[Hoosier]

New paper is out about the spatial redistribution of U.S. tornado activity between 1954 and 2013.  The authors used equal time periods of 1954-1983 and 1984-2013 and found some interesting trends... namely, an overall decrease in tornado count and tornado days in much of what is considered to be the classic Plains tornado alley and an overall increase in tornado count and tornado days in parts of the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys.  They also broke down their results by season.  They don't explicitly attribute their findings to climate change but they note how the 1984-2013 period was warmer than the 1954-1983 period in the CONUS.

Wasn't sure whether I would post this here but since there's at least a chance that the changes could be due to climate change, what the hey. 

http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/JAMC-D-15-0342.1

Thoughts?

[ORH_wxman]

The 1954-1983 period was also favoring La Niña and -PDO while the latter period was tilted more toward El Niño and +PDO. Also the AMO was almost exclusively negative during the former period and positive for the latter after 1994  

 

Those probably play a factor in where the best temperature gradients are setting up. I'll have to read the whole paper though when I get some time. 

[StormShelter]

This is a great study.  I have heard the results of this study, but I had not yet seen a copy of it.  This sure is good information to have as a storm shelter manufacturer.  Tornado activity as a whole, trending down is a good thing.  Definitely a good thing that storm shelters are not all that we know how to manufacture!