Where are the Tornadoes?
WxGeeks has 2 guests that might know (or not)!

By Dr. Marshall Shepherd

Where are the Tornadoes?

It was a question that came up as I chatted with this week’s WxGeeks guest before taping the show. It is no secret that severe weather activity is quiet right now (that’s a good thing, but an odd thing). At the time of writing (March 17th), there have been no U.S. tornadoes in March. Dr. Greg Forbes posted how rare this is. He says it hasn’t happened this late into March since 1969 and is the only time on record since the 1950s. A recent paper in Nature Geosciences is quite timely because it shows that the El Nino (warm) phase of ENSO seems to suppress tornado activity (See Link). This is also consistent with recent research by Dr. Ashton Robinson Cook at the University of Oklahoma. NOAA recently noted the “official” onset of El Nino. Interestingly, this one is taking on characteristics of a Modoki El Nino. To answer your question, “What’s that?”, see this UCAR discussion at (Link).

As we enter March, climatologically we expect severe weather activity to increase so we invited Dr. Harold Brooks and Dr. Patrick Marsh to WxGeeks. Dr. Harold Brooks, in my opinion, is literally one of the top experts in the world on severe weather and tornadoes. He works at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). I’ve had the pleasure of serving on committees with him and value his viewpoint so much that I often refer media and other interested parties to him when I am queried about tornadoes. He will provide insight into the NSSL, emerging technologies, and recent discussions related to climate and tornadic activity. That last topic always gets social media buzzing.

Dr. Patrick Marsh is a younger colleague, but one that I am equally impressed with. I accidentally stole his laptop charger at an AMS meeting but he didn’t hold it against me ☺. But on a serious note, Dr. Marsh is one of the bright young stars within our community. He works at NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC), and like a certain show host ☺, he is very comfortable expressing his viewpoints. He offers a couple of very provocative thoughts on this week’s show that are “must see.”

We look forward to sharing this episode with you along with another round of Geeks Trivia. We also have a really interesting “Hail No” segment on tornadic activity and climate change (relax, relax until you hear the discussion).

Please join us on Weather (Wx) Geeks Sunday at Noon ET/11 CT/10 MT/9 PT on The Weather Channel.

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