Tornadoes ripped through the United States over the weekend, especially in the Midwest and Southeast of the country. Experts are saying that this is yet another unprecedented weather disaster for 2021, likely due to climate change.
What may have been the longest tornado ever in U.S. history tore through the U.S. from Arkansas to Kentucky, as part of a massive storm wave. At least 100 were killed in Kentucky alone, and dozens still remain unaccounted for. The path of destruction is estimated to have been 227 miles long, surpassing the 218-mile record from a tornado in 1925 that tore across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said that the level of devastation from the tornado is unlike anything he had ever seen. Kentucky has declared a state of emergency.
Multiple tornadoes hit other states as well, killing at least six in Illinois, four in Tennessee, two in Arkansas, and two in Missouri.
President Joe Biden has asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate how climate change played a role in the deadly tornadoes.
Experts said that tornadoes with this level of intensity are rare this late in the year, especially during the colder seasons. While a tornado itself in December may not be completely unusual, what is incredibly unusual was the sheer intensity of the severe weather. The storms beginning Friday night are therefore an anomaly. Biden said that because of how rare they are, that the government needs to investigate to what degree the climate crisis may have contributed.
Climate analysts and experts have warned for decades that there is a link between global warming and the increasing intensity of abnormal severe weather.
Experts have said that extreme weather is going to be our new normal now and that we are living out the effects of climate change.
Links between extreme weather and climate change have been proven repeatedly, especially extreme weather like hurricanes, extreme rainfall, floodings, heatwaves. Connecting tornadoes to climate change is the hardest connection to make, experts said.
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