An EF-4 tornado wreaked havoc in Greenfield, Iowa on May 21, 2024. The frenzy of a twister passing through a small town with peak winds of 185 miles per hour is visible in this image taken by the Sentinel 2 satellite in May. 25. (Credit: Modified Copernicus Sentinel data processed by Tom Yulsman)
It’s quite a spring for twisters in the United States. So far this year, preliminary count The Storm Prediction Center reported 1,035 tornadoes, 872 of which occurred in April and May.
And there’s still one more month of activity left.
One of the most destructive tornadoes of the season occurred in southwestern Iowa on Tuesday, May 21. It then carved a destructive path 44 miles northeast, ultimately wiping out tiny Greenfield, population 2,062. spinning at a speed of 185 miles per hour EF-4 The twister reached a frightening maximum extent of more than half a mile wide.
Tragically that killed five people In Greenfield.
The scars through the city can be seen in the satellite image above and in this image released today by NASA.
This image, acquired on May 25, 2024, by the Operational Land Imager instrument aboard the Landsat 8 satellite, shows a path of destruction across Greenfield, Iowa. The tornado destroyed homes, destroyed wind turbines and power lines, and tore and uprooted trees. It also tragically claimed the lives of five people. (Credit: NASA Earth Observatory)
This spring’s tornado damage includes: collision of two air masses: A large, stagnant dome of high-pressure hot air over Mexico and the U.S. Gulf region with relatively cold air to the north and west. The jet stream flowing between these conflicting air masses swept a series of storm systems through Texas, Oklahoma, and into the Midwest.
The result is massive thunderstorms with powerful convective updrafts that push moist air high into the atmosphere, sometimes into the stratosphere. pass over the cloud tops.
“When these types of updrafts absorb highly unstable air masses with large vertical wind shear, they often produce deadly tornadoes and large hail,” said Kristopher Bedka, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center. post From NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Preliminary data shows the United States has seen more than 30 tornadoes rated EF-1 or higher over four days. The average is 2 people per year. According to Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory: story USA Today says 2024 is likely to place them in the top 10%.
