{"id":375042,"date":"2025-04-14T19:45:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T17:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=375042"},"modified":"2025-04-14T19:46:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T17:46:00","slug":"wrong-abc-news-climate-change-didnt-cause-2025s-severe-tornado-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=375042","title":{"rendered":"Wrong, ABC News, Climate Change Didn\u2019t Cause 2025\u2019s Severe Tornado Outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Linnea Lueken<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A recent story by ABC News, \u201cClimate and environment updates: Tornado activity doubled March average: NOAA,<\/a>\u201d classifies recent severe tornado outbreaks under their \u201cclimate crisis\u201d category, implying that these storms were caused by global warming. This is false. Climate change is not causing an increase in the number or severity of tornados, nor can it be connected to such a limited event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC warns:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it\u2019s happening right now and affecting what matters most to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a new report <\/a>from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. tornado activity in March was more than twice the monthly average, with over 200 tornadoes recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although ABC doesn\u2019t explicitly state that this tornado season has been caused by climate change, the story strongly implies it, and as such it cannot be left unchallenged, because it is wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States did experience a destructive and violent tornado season in March 2025, but it was not a record breaker in terms of numbers or strength, nor does it reflect a long-term trend that would be necessary to prove the climate connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) disagree strongly with ABC\u2019s claims. They report that tornado records in the past are spotty, because they are very short lived and aren\u2019t always reported, especially as one moves further back into the past. NCEI reports \u201c[m]any significant tornadoes may not make it into the historical record since Tornado Alley<\/a> was very sparsely populated during the 20th century.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doppler weather radar did not become widespread until the 1990s. Because of the low coverage of weather radar before then, and much higher coverage in recent years, NCEI explains that \u201cobservation practices have led to an increase in the number of reported weaker tornadoes, and in recent years EF-0 tornadoes have become more prevalent in the total number of reported tornadoes<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NCEI continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With increased National Doppler radar coverage, increasing population, and greater attention to tornado reporting, there has been an increase in the number of tornado reports over the past several decades. This can create a misleading appearance of an increasing trend in tornado frequency. To better understand the variability and trend in tornado frequency in the United States, the total number of EF-1 and stronger, as well as strong to violent tornadoes (EF-3 to EF-5 category on the Enhanced Fujita scale) can be analyzed. These tornadoes would have likely been reported even during the decades before Doppler radar use became widespread and practices resulted in increasing tornado reports. The bar charts below indicate there has been little trend in the frequency of the stronger tornadoes over the past 55 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data<\/a> from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tornado count show no trend in the number of tornadoes since the introduction of widespread Doppler radar. (See figures below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Figure 1: Trend of all tornadoes counted since 1950. Note that the trend stops increasing once the widespread coverage of Doppler weather radar is achieved in the 1990s. Red are preliminary estimates for this year.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When it comes to the strongest tornadoes, EF-3 and above, there appears to be a downwards trend. (see figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Climate at a Glance: Tornadoes points out that as recently as 2017 through 2018, the United States set records for the longest period in history without a tornado death and the longest period in history without an F3 or stronger tornado. In fact, the two record-low years for number of tornadoes both occurred this past dozen years, in 2014 and 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that \u201c[t]here is low confidence in observed trends in small spatial-scale phenomena such as tornadoes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC\u2019s alarming coverage of the 2025 tornado season is at odds with the data. There is no dangerous climate signal in the tornado data, there may even be evidence that the modest warming of the past century is related to the decline in severe tornado outbreaks in the United States. A single severe tornado season, or concentrated outbreak, is not evidence of catastrophic climate change, only a long-term sustained trend would suggest climate change might be a factor, and there is no such trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent story by ABC News, \u201cClimate and environment updates: Tornado activity doubled March average: NOAA,\u201d classifies recent severe tornado outbreaks under their \u201cclimate crisis\u201d category, implying that these storms were caused by global warming. This is false. Climate change is not causing an increase in the number or severity of tornados, nor can it be connected to such a limited event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":375051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691824778,691818056,691819743,691834464,691821016,691818311],"class_list":["post-375042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abc-news","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-propaganda","tag-national-centers-for-environmental-information-ncei","tag-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration-noaa","tag-tornadoes","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0a-big-tornado-in-the-field-a-big-natural-disaster-in-the-world-generative-ai-free-photo.jpg?fit=2940%2C1960&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1zz4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":252508,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=252508","url_meta":{"origin":375042,"position":0},"title":"Media FAILS: Ignores Real-World Data When It Comes to Tornadoes and Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/12\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Finally, it is important to note that severe tornado outbreaks are not a global (as in global warming) phenomenon, but mostly limited to the United States with its unique topography and weather patterns.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Oklahoma-Tornado.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Oklahoma-Tornado.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Oklahoma-Tornado.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Oklahoma-Tornado.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0Oklahoma-Tornado.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":252441,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=252441","url_meta":{"origin":375042,"position":1},"title":"Media Ignores Real-World Data When It Comes to Tornadoes and Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"As a result, fewer and less violent tornadoes are occurring today than in previous periods, despite media claims that tornadoes are getting more frequent, stronger, or both.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornado-1876x1254-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornado-1876x1254-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornado-1876x1254-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornado-1876x1254-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornado-1876x1254-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":251090,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=251090","url_meta":{"origin":375042,"position":2},"title":"False, Washington Post, Climate Change Isn\u2019t Making Tornado Seasons Worse","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/04\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The willful choice to ignore these facts by Dance, his editors, and WaPo\u2019s fact checkers is indicative of the shoddy state of what passes for journalism at the WaPo today where, evidently, science dies in darkness.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornados-2019.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornados-2019.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornados-2019.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornados-2019.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0tornados-2019.png?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":440938,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=440938","url_meta":{"origin":375042,"position":3},"title":"Tornado Damage and Frequency Through 2025: No Upward Trends in Normalized Losses or Major Tornado Incidence","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/22\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"According to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and Storm Prediction Center (SPC), the contiguous U.S. recorded 1,559 preliminary tornadoes in 2025. This was 127% of the 1991\u20132020 annual average (~1,225 tornadoes) and ranked as the fifth-highest annual total on record (behind 2004, 2024, 2008, and 2011). Some tallies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"EF4s\"","block_context":{"text":"EF4s","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ef4s"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Tornado-Damage-and-Frequency-Through-2025-No-Upward-Trends-in-Normalized-Losses-or-Major-Tornado-Incidence.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Tornado-Damage-and-Frequency-Through-2025-No-Upward-Trends-in-Normalized-Losses-or-Major-Tornado-Incidence.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Tornado-Damage-and-Frequency-Through-2025-No-Upward-Trends-in-Normalized-Losses-or-Major-Tornado-Incidence.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Tornado-Damage-and-Frequency-Through-2025-No-Upward-Trends-in-Normalized-Losses-or-Major-Tornado-Incidence.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":244165,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=244165","url_meta":{"origin":375042,"position":4},"title":"What The Media Won’t Tell You About Tornadoes","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/19\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Climate change is part of a popular narrative associated with extreme weather.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-452.png?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-452.png?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-452.png?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-452.png?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-452.png?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":280918,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=280918","url_meta":{"origin":375042,"position":5},"title":"A new paper shows that U.S. tornado damage & strong tornado incidence are both sharply down","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/28\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A new paper has just been published by Zhang and colleagues \u2014\u00a0Time trends in losses from major tornadoes in the United States\u00a0\u2014 which updates and extends our 2013 analysis. They find: \"[B]oth the severity of damage from individual events and the total annual losses from tornadoes are seen to have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"major tornadoes\"","block_context":{"text":"major tornadoes","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=major-tornadoes"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00twister.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00twister.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00twister.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00twister.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00twister.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375042"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375053,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375042\/revisions\/375053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/375051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}