SoCS: tornado?

I live in the Southern Tier of New York State and, like many places on earth, we’ve had weather weirding going on as a result of climate change, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. (Yes, even in Stream of Consciousness, I need to make sure I am clear on the science I present on my blog!)

This summer, we’ve had lots of big temperature swings. We’ve had lines of thunderstorms that have had high winds. That isn’t unusual for us but what is unusual is the level of damage we are seeing.

Sometimes, it is straight line winds but this year we have had an unusual number of tornados. On the weather report on television a few days, if I’m remembering correctly, we had had 12 confirmed tornados in the state so far this year, well above our average of 5. (I’m not sure if those are the correct figures as I may have misremembered, so don’t quote me on them without checking first.)

Fortunately, the tornados near us have been small and on the weaker side of the F scale they use to grade tornados. Still, they have broken trees and damaged buildings in their path.

There have been some other areas where there was similar damage but caused by straight line winds. The chief meteoraligist from channel 12 was able to go out with the National Weather Service personnel on investigation of a possible tornado. They were explaining how they tell the difference between tornados and straight line winds by looking at the debris pattern. With a tornado, the trees will fall in different directions, whereas with straight line winds the trees will fall in the same direction. I’m sure there are other factors that they observe to make their determinations, especially the radar signatures during the storm, but they always look at the debris patterns before making a final determination.

There are so many people in the US and around the world suffering from weather-related disasters these days. I’m living in a place that has been luck this year compared to so many other places. For me, all these weather events are reminders that we need to move as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels to try to keep further increases of these disasters at bay.

Let’s go!
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciosness Saturday this week is “wind.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/07/24/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-25-2026/

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Author: Joanne Corey

Please come visit my eclectic blog, Top of JC's Mind. You can never be sure what you'll find!

12 thoughts on “SoCS: tornado?”

  1. I think it is great that you point out “….caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.” The evidence for this has been massive and for all practical purposes conclusive for decades but most people don’t know much about it. There’s too much nonsense from politics. Anyway, I am sorry about all the tornadoes and other bad weather. Same here in north Texas. We had a F3 tornado destroy our neighborhood 6-7 years ago and the damage to our house cost $50,000.00, and the hail storms damaging our roof twice, our cars twice, flooding, and wild fire risk even though we haven’t had any wild fires in Dallas. But the home insurance premiums have gone through the roof.

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    1. We are certainly much less at risk than you are in TX. We do have occasional floods and blizzards but our likelihood is still lower than in places like TX. I think insurance premiums have gone up for everyone but more so in places that have wildfire risk or repeated flood risk.

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      1. Yes you are right, and in our case, Dallas homeowners have to pay for the increased flooding risk in Houston but they don’t have to pay for the increased large hail and wildfire risk in north Texas.

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  2. Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful and well-written perspective. I’m glad your area has been spared the worst, even though the increase in severe weather is certainly concerning.

    I also appreciated your explanation of how meteorologists distinguish tornado damage from straight line wind it was fascinating and easy to understand.

    Wishing you and your community continued safety, and thank you for encouraging meaningful conversations about protecting both people and our environment. 🌎💚

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    1. Of course, we have always had storms and floods but scientists have been able to show how much climate change has increased the risk of these severe events. Some of the projection for the future are terrifying, especially about the potential for collapse of the ocean currents in the Atlantic.

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  4. Yup, the weather is all over the place. When I first moved to the Cape, the house I lived in was 5 miles outside the flood plain (made sure I checked before I signed the lease). When I moved away, 10 years later, it was in the flood plain, and the main street 1/4 mile away was regularly under water.

    In the 5 years we’ve been here, we’ve had an increase in tornado watches/warnings. And the billionaire fossil fuel fires don’t help, either.

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