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Hi, I'm Stuart Shepard. This is Stoplight!
Every - body - knows
I've long been amused by the things that everybody knows. Everybody knows you can balance an
egg on its end during the equinox. Except this week is the solstice. Ohh...
Everybody knows - the more times you push the elevator button - the faster the elevator arrives.
Everybody knows any severe weather event anywhere in the world is always because of - Global Warming.
At least you think that if you follow the headlines.
Stories like these always show up after severe weather events because everybody in the mainstream
media knows thunderstorms are caused by rising warm air. More warm air, more tornadoes, right?
But in spite of the fact that everybody knows the earth apparently does not.
Dr. Roy Spencer at the University of Alabama took data from 1950 until now and plotted
the average US temperatures and the number of strong to violent tornadoes: The F3, 4 and 5.
As a meteorologist he already knew what he'd find. When average temperatures were cooler,
there were more, strong to violent tornadoes. As temperatures have gotten warmer there have
been on average fewer strong tornadoes.
2011 will stand out like that spike back in 1974 but it does not change the trend.
It's a little complicated but basically it takes more than just warm air to make a thunderstorm
produce a tornado.
So the question for everybody is, would it be better to waste our tax dollars on a foolish
attempt to control the temperature of an entire planet or should we spend it to help the people
whose lives were devastated by a weather event that's beyond our control.