Since moving to Iowa last year, I have learned that there is little to slow the wind in the Great Plains. And, a few months ago, the wind woke me from my sleep. I checked my weather app and saw an advisory to stay off the roads. Winds up to 30-40 mph would be strong enough to knock a car off course. Tornadoes are common in the Midwest but not in December. I thought of the videos of king tides and regular flooding in our low-lying atolls. I thought of the strong typhoons and hurricanes I hear about more often. As I flipped through the cities in my weather app, I saw wind advisories in Arkansas, Michigan all the way to Maryland. As it turned out, the night before, Kentucky had been slammed with an outbreak of tornadoes.
Given that an EF-2 tornado with winds up to 115 mph hit Springdale yesterday morning, I want to talk about the tornado outbreak last December, how this is climate change, and what to know to be safe during extreme weather like this. Much love and respect for everyone in the community who was out yesterday helping. We will be sharing more about how the community mobilized to care for each other. Eļap an kajur jukjukin-pād. We are just waiting on a few official updates about tornado recovery actions in Springdale. See Springdale Tornado and Recovery in Pictures and the full update – Kajoor eo an Jukjukūn Pād.
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Ta en aikuj jeļā ikkijien aṃ maron̄ bōbrae im kōjparok eok ilo iien an tornado?
Eḷap unin bwe jen kaṃṃoolol kōn kajedeed kōjeḷāik kōn kōto ko rekauwōtata im kōḷapḷok enaan ko ikijjien tornado. Jikuuḷ tiijtrik eo emaron̄ wōr storm shelter n̄an kamuniti eo im epeḷḷọk jabdewōt iien ewōr jorour im jarom ak kakkōl in tornado.
Jab pād ilo ial ko im pad wōt iloan eṃ. Ijo eḷapḷọk an oṇaake iloan iṃweo ej bejman eo. N̄e ejjeḷọk bejman, eṃṃan jikin kōpojak. Kwōn kattoḷọk jān winto ko, badtrikrik im kōjparoke mejaṃ im bōran kōn peiṃ.
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Tornado Outbreak in the Southeast
A storm system moving across the Southeast, December 10-11, 2021, created an outbreak of more than 30 tornadoes. The most violent of these tornadoes was ¾ mile wide and touched down for 227 miles. Starting in Northeast Arkansas, it crossed across the little part of Missouri and Northwest Tennessee into Western Kentucky. The strength of tornadoes is assessed by wind speed and amount of damage, on a scale of 0-5. This tornado, an EF4, with winds up to 190 mph, caused “severe damage.” There were power outages in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky. After locating all missing people, officials counted 90 deaths across six states resulting directly from the outbreak tornado event.
Monette, Arkansas: 3 deaths. Two people in a Dollar General store and one person in a nursing home.
Caruthersville, Missouri: 9 deaths. One family, sheltering in the most secure place in their house (the bathroom) was pulled out of their house by the tornado. One of the young girls who survived said, “I was flying around in that tornado” and then it “just spit me out and threw me in the ground, in the mud.” The oldest of the three children did not survive and the mother was in serious condition.
Edwardsville, Illinois: 6 deaths. A tornado took out the south half of a 400,000 square foot Amazon warehouse with it. Workers sheltering in the bathrooms on that side of the warehouse were killed or injured as the building fell down on them. In part bad luck, it’s become clear that only a storm shelter would have been sufficient protection, and warehouses like these are not required to and rarely have a specially built storm shelter.
Lake and Obion County, Tennessee – 3 deaths
Several towns in Kentucky – 78 deaths. The tornado took out nearly the whole town of Mayfield destroying homes, offices, churches, and businesses and causing the majority of these deaths. Though there were also reported deaths in Bowling Green, Dawson Springs, and Princeton. Most of downtown Mayfield was destroyed. The tornado ripped the clock tower of the court house and the town’s water tower fell and sunk into the ground. 110 people were caught under the rubble of what was once the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory. 8 of those people died.
All this was followed by another storm system that swept across the Midwest. Dust storms in CO and KS, wildfires in KS with winds up to 100mph, air traffic control was temporarily evacuated, and schools in most of Iowa closed early where there were wind gusts up to 90 mph. The storm system set a couple of records – a record high temperature in Des Moines of 74 ֯ F and the first December tornado for South Dakota. The outbreak produced an EF0 tornado in Minnesota and an EF2 tornado in WI. There were 5 deaths, mostly people on the road. A couple of tornadoes in the Midwest, more prepared for that kind of weather, is not especially uncommon. It is unusual to sees tornadoes in December instead of snow. The tornado outbreak in Kentucky set a new record tornado track of 227 miles.
Is this because of climate change?
There seems to be a shift in tornadoes from the Great Plains to an increase in outbreaks in the Southeast. Extra heating and increased wind shear (speed and direction) is associated with larger outbreaks. And, the larger the outbreak, the more likely that some of the of the tornadoes will be stronger. Tornadoes form when a dense, dry cold air is forced over warm, humid air causing an updraft. This combined with a change in the wind sheer (speed and direction) cause the updraft to spin forming a tornado. Straight winds can also cause significant damage. A derecho is like a tornado but with straight winds. It’s possible that the tornado system in the southeast was fueled by warm air from a warming Gulf of Mexico.
What do you need to know to stay safe when there is danger of a tornado?
We can be thankful for more accurate tornado warnings and better communication. Stay off the roads but if necessary take shelter in a ditch and cover your face and head with your arms. Stay indoors. The best place to be in the event of a tornado is in a basement or a cellar. An interior bathroom or hallway away from windows is the next best place, but it’s little protection should you have the misfortune of being in the path of a tornado this strong. If climate change has shifted outbreaks of tornadoes, storm shelters and basements will need to be serious considerations for climate adaptation. In areas of the country, like the southeast, basements may be uncommon. Interior rooms or hallways in buildings can be fortified to withstand high winds and need to be serious considerations in new buildings and community buildings.