Tornadoes
Watch “SOTT Earth Changes Summary – March 2016: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs”
A collection of some weather (and other!) events from last month;
New map of UK tornado hotspots
From Psy.org and something not all that surprising but interesting nonetheless, especially as I am in one of the affected areas.
Researchers have updated a map of the UK that pinpoints tornado hotspots for the first time in two decades.
Although most people think of twisters striking ‘Tornado Alley’ in the US, the UK actually has more tornadoes per area than any other country. And now we know where they are most likely to occur.
In a paper published in the journal Monthly Weather Review, the team from the University of Manchester show how they used eye-witness reports of the twisters to put together the map, which covers the UK from 1980–2012. Data for the study came from TORRO, an organisation which collects severe weather reports from the media and over 350 observers in the UK, Ireland and around the world.
During that period the country experienced an average of 34 tornadoes every year. Although the peak season for tornadoes is from May to October, they can occur at any time of the year. Most of those were in England (78%), with the most prone regions the south, south east and west where the threat of a tornado may be as high as 6% in any given year (in other words, a one in 17-year event).
