Tornado Trends: How Weather Patterns Vary Across the US

Severe storms and tornadoes are some of nature's most dangerous events, causing significant damage and harm. The weather conditions near the surface are heavily influenced by large-scale weather patterns, known as synoptic patterns. To understand how tornadoes might change with the climate, scientists are looking at how these big weather patterns affect tornado formation. This study used a clustering method to show that the kind of synoptic patterns causing tornadoes changes depending on where you are in the US. In the southeastern US, powerful weather patterns with high upper-level energy and strong winds are responsible for the increasing number of tornadoes. On the other hand, in some parts of the central Great Plains, weaker weather patterns are linked to fewer tornadoes. These findings suggest that the reasons behind changes in tornado occurrences differ from one region to another.