Weather hits coast to coast; why does U.S. have the most?

People walk through damage from a late-night tornado in Sullivan,
Ind., 1 April 1 2023. (Photo by Doug McSchooler, AP Photo)

Tornadoes, floods, wildfires – and the hits keep coming. "The United States is Earth's punching bag for nasty weather. Blame geography for the U.S. getting hit by stronger, costlier, more varied and frequent extreme weather than anywhere on the planet, several experts said," reports Seth Borenstein of The Associated Press. "Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, jutting peninsulas like Florida, clashing storm fronts and the jet stream combine to naturally brew the nastiest of weather."

That's not all. "Nature dealt the United States a bad hand, but people have made it much worse by what, where and how we build, several experts said," Borenstein writes. "Then add climate change." Rick Spinrad, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Borenstein to be prepared to: "Buckle up. More extreme events are expected."

U.S. weather reads like a horrifying menu: "Hurricanes. Flash floods. Droughts. Blizzards. Ice storms. Nor'easters. Lake-effect snow. Heat waves. Severe thunderstorms. Hail. Lightning. Atmospheric rivers. Derechos. Dust storms. Monsoons. Bomb cyclones. And the dreaded polar vortex," Borenstein lists. Victor Gensini, a Northern Illinois University meteorology professor, told Borenstein, "It really starts with kind of two things. Number one is the Gulf of Mexico. And number two is elevated terrain to the west."

The past year's extreme weather has vetted the dire warnings. It also highlights areas, many of which are rural, are ill-prepared to "buckle up" In 2022, "July floods reveal troubling truths about Kentucky's severe weather emergency alert systems. Imprecise weather forecasting and spotty emergency alerts due to limited cellular and internet access in rural Kentucky meant that many others were wholly unprepared for the historic flood," reports Claire Carlson of The Daily Yonder. "Efforts to improve these systems are underway, but state officials say expansions to broadband infrastructure will take at least four years to be completed in Kentucky's most rural counties. . . . In a state where flooding is common, these improvements could be the difference between life and death for rural Kentuckians."

Borenstein reports, "If the United States as a whole has it bad, the South has it the worst, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd." Sherpherd told Borenstein, "We drew the short straw (in the South) that we literally can experience every single type of extreme weather event. Including blizzards. Including wildfires, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes. Every single type. . . . There's no other place in the United States that can say that."

"Shepherd noted that poverty makes it hard to prepare for and bounce back from disasters, especially in the South," Borenstein writes. Another Northern Illinois meteorology professor, Walker Ashley, told him, "Safety can be bought. Those who are well-to-do and have resources can buy Safety and will be the most resilient when disaster strikes. ... Unfortunately, that isn't all of us."