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Tornado Risk Increase

There’s increasing evidence linking global warming to changes in the severe weather that gives rise to tornadoes. The thunderstorms that give rise to tornadoes occur to stabilize the atmosphere, and global warming can increase instability. Observational data shows there has been a subtle but detectable increase in tornado risk over the past few decades due to several factors including: a rise in the number of tornadoes in large tornado outbreaks, a shift in the time of year they occur, and changes in jet stream behavior that favor severe thunderstorms.

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