Stunning ignorance on display from Senator Barbara Boxer over Oklahoma tornado outbreak

Via POLITICO’s Morning Energy – May 21, 2013:

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif. – Chair of Senate Environment & Public Works Committee) took to the Senate floor and invoked the Oklahoma tornadoes in her speech on global warming.

“This is climate change. We were warned about extreme weather. Not just hot weather. But extreme weather. When I had my hearings, when I had the gavel years ago. -It’s been a while – the scientists all agreed that what we’d start to see was extreme weather. And people looked at one another and said ‘what do you mean? It’s gonna get hot?’ Yeah, it’s gonna get hot. But you’re also going to see snow in the summer in some places. You’re gonna have terrible storms. You’re going to have tornados and all the rest. We need to protect our people. That’s our number one obligation and we have to deal with this threat that is upon us and that is gonna get worse and worse though the years.”

[Boxer] also plugged her own bill, cosponsored with Sen. Bernie Sanders that would put a tax on carbon. “Carbon could cost us the planet,” she said. “The least we could do is put a little charge on it so people move to clean energy.”

And then there’s the shameful rant from US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse yesterday.

Here’s a germane question for these geniuses. 

Tell us, what could any tax, law, edict, or protest have done to stop yesterday’s tornado outbreak? And what makes this one somehow different from the F5 Oklahoma city tornado of 1999 that also hit the city of Moore?

What made this somehow AGW enhanced or different from the F5 tornado that destroyed the Oklahoma city of Snyder in 1905, or the 1955 Great Plains tornado outbreak which produced an F5 striking Blackwell, Oklahoma, killing 20, with another F5 from the same storm striking Udall, KS, killing 80?

Tell us you Canutian meteorological geniuses, how could you have changed the outcome yesterday?

For those who live in the real world, reference these from NOAA:

US Strong to Violent Tornadoes (EF3-EF5) – 1950 to 2012;

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) – Click the pic to view at source

are below average. US Inflation Adjusted Annual Tornado Trend and Percentile Ranks;

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – Storm Prediction Center- Click the pic to view at source

are currently below average. US Tornadoes Daily Count and Running Annual Total;

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – Storm Prediction Center- Click the pic to view at source

….are currently well below average.

And when is the hottest part of the year in the USA? July and August of course. When is the peak tornado season? In the spring when it is cooler. Seasonal heat is not aligned with tornadic activity.

Andrew Revkin at NYT Dot Earth has a thoughtful essay on how city planning (or lack of it) likely contributed to this disaster. He closes with:

I’ll add a final thought about the persistent discussion of the role of greenhouse-driven climate change in violent weather in Tornado Alley.

It’s an important research question but, to me, has no bearing at all on the situation in the Midwest and South — whether there’s a tornado outbreak or drought. The forces putting people in harm’s way are demographic, economic, behavioral and architectural. Any influence of climate change on dangerous tornadoes (so far the data point to a moderating influence) is, at best, marginally relevant and, at worst, a distraction.

Read it here: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/a-survival-plan-for-americas-tornado-danger-zone/

UPDATE:

The IPCC says:

“There is low confidence in observed trends in small spatial-scale phenomena such as tornadoes” and on no knowledge on future development of tornadoes: “There is low confidence in projections of small-scale phenomena such as tornadoes because competing physical processes may affect future trends and because climate models do not simulate such phenomena.”

On pages 8 and 113, http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/images/uploads/SREX-All_FINAL.pdf

(h/t to Bjorn Lomborg for IPCC link)

From the Daily Caller:

An often cited 1975 magazine article by long-time Newsweek science editor Peter Gwynne warned of tornadoes as a consequence of “global cooling,” along with other residual effects, including food shortages.

“There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production — with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth,” Gwynne wrote. “The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only ten years from now.”

There was even a specific passage blaming the “global cooling” phenomenon for a 1974 tornado outbreak.

“Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars’ worth of damage in thirteen states,” Gwynne wrote.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/21/newsweek-in-1975-tornado-outbreak-blamed-on-global-cooling/#ixzz2TxEM1LFw