Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail: West Virginia becoming part of Tornado Alley (2024)

In the past two months, at least 11 tornadoes have hit West Virginia as powerful storms surged through the Mountain State. It’s a number that almost defies belief over such a short period of time, and it could go up as more is learned about the most recent sightings.

Over Memorial Day weekend, at least two tornadoes touched down in the region, one in Putnam County and another in Jackson, Ohio. Severe storms knocked out electricity for more than 100,000 Appalachian Power customers, about 18,000 of whom remained without power days later.

On April 2, strong winds and driving rain caused massive damage and flooding in West Virginia and surrounding states, in some cases snapping interstate billboards in half. At first, the National Weather Service reported that five tornadoes had hit the region that day. As further analysis was conducted, the number moved up to eight and, earlier this month, the NWS confirmed that 10 tornadoes had touched down in West Virginia alone on April 2, which, not surprisingly, is a record for the state.

In fact, 15 tornadoes have hit West Virginia so far in 2024, eclipsing the previous record of 14 in 1998, and the year’s not even half over.

The Associated Press reported that West Virginia averages two tornadoes a year, though high-number years might make that average a bit deceptive. For instance, the 15 tornadoes this year could account for two tornadoes a year over a 30-year period. In any event, tornadoes used to be fairly uncommon in West Virginia. But like flooding and precipitation that keeps exceeding previous records, climate change has likely spurred an increase in twisters hitting the Mountain State.

Unlike record heat, rainfall, flooding and hurricanes, there isn’t as much of a direct correlation between climate change and more frequent or fiercer tornadoes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stated that part of the missing link is a lack of research, because tornadoes are more difficult to study than other weather phenomena. An article published last year by National Public Radio cites NOAA as stating that only 2 in 10 supercell storm formations produce tornadoes, which makes predictability and, therefore, data collection, more difficult. ...

When tornadoes swept across four states in 2021, creating damage that stretched for more than 200 miles and causing multiple fatalities, Central Michigan University meteorology professor John T. Allen penned a column for USA Today calling for more research into how a warming climate correlated with such storms.

At first, it was thought that perhaps several tornadoes had popped up across the path of damage, which would be similar, although on a much different scale, to what happened in West Virginia in April. However, it was eventually determined that parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky were hit by two, long-tracked tornadoes, one of which tore through the region for 166 miles, which was nearly unprecedented, especially for that part of the country.

What researchers can say is that a warming climate produces more storm and superstorm cells, which creates the potential for more tornadoes over a longer period of time in a given year, according to NOAA.

“Tornado season” used to refer to the spring and summer months in the Great Plains, with storms moving south to north as those months progressed, across geographic locales referred to as Tornado Alley. Those distinctions mean less these days, as tornadoes can hit just about anywhere (they always could, but the recent frequency of such storms elsewhere has stretched traditional boundaries) and the window for severe storms has increased.

For instance, March is a typical time to see increased thunderstorms because warm and cool air currents begin to clash. The Weather Channel reported 236 that tornadoes hit a broad swath of the United States in March 2022, a number not seen since 1950.

In the NPR report, a NOAA official said tornadoes will likely begin to occur more in the winter months because of continuing record heat.

CMU’s Miller noted in his column that tornado patterns had already started shifting eastward. Oh, and those two, long-track tornadoes he was writing about? They occurred on Dec. 10.

The tornadoes that hit West Virginia over the past two months are probably far from the last the state will see in 2024. Until climate change is addressed in a meaningful way, severe storms accompanied by massive floods, power outages and damage to crucial infrastructure will be the norm.