Do You Want the Good or Bad News on Tornadoes and Hurricanes?
Climate change might make them less frequent but more destructive.
Fewer tornadoes, more destruction.
Photographer: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
If the Car Crash Fairy offered you a deal that would lower your odds of getting in a car accident, but the trade-off was that any accidents you did get into would be far more likely to injure or kill you, you probably wouldn’t take that deal. But that might be the bargain we have made with climate change and two of the most destructive natural disasters.
Many of the heat waves, droughts and floods wracking the planet have clearly been made more likely by warming. The jury is still out on whether tornadoes and hurricanes will similarly become more frequent. They might even happen less often, at least in some places. But the ones that do occur could be more destructive, raising risks for everyone from insurers to urban planners.