The National Weather Service issued a record amount of tornado warnings at the end of April during an unusual surge in the extreme weather phenomenon.
A newly issued climate report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said April was a very "active severe weather month." Over 100 tornadoes across the Midwest and the Great Plains occurred from April 25 to 28, the NOAA reported, causing "significant damage and loss of life." It also said this was "the worst tornado outbreak for the year so far." The month also brought severe winter storms.
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"On April 26, the severe weather resulted in the National Weather Service in Omaha, Nebraska, issuing 48 tornado warnings—the most the office has ever issued in a single day," the NOAA's climate report said.
April also saw a continuation of unusually warm temperatures, NOAA reported. So far, 2024 has been the fifth hottest year recorded.
"The average April temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 53.8 degrees F (2.7 degrees above the 20th-century average), ranking as 12th-warmest in NOAA's 130-year climate record," the report said. "Virginia and West Virginia had their fifth-warmest Aprils on record while Kentucky, Maryland and Ohio each saw their top-10 warmest Aprils on record."
The Midwest and Great Plains are no strangers to tornadoes, but the recent surge has been quite unusual.
Tornadoes usually form through a supercell storm, a type of severe thunderstorm. These storms circulate from above, usually lasting for an extended period. This is due to warmer temperatures traveling through the atmosphere and warmer ocean surfaces, which cause increased winds and favorable conditions for storms to form.
However, the exiting of an El Niño winter could also be playing a role. This is the opinion of Andrew Winters, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Winters told the university's news outlet CU Boulder Today that the tornado surge is "somewhat surprising" because a strong El Niño winter is associated with a "lower likelihood of severe weather and tornado activity in the Central Plains."
However, the atmosphere can "produce a strong subtropical air current" because of El Niño.
"Any waves or fluctuation along the subtropical jet stream that makes the jet wavy can create an environment that facilitates the production of severe weather and tornadoes in the spring," Winters said. "This is what caused the tornadoes across the country over the last couple of weeks."
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Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Robyn White is a Newsweek Nature Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on wildlife, science and the ... Read more
