Oklahoma Tornadoes Kill at Least Four

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Facts

• At least four people, including a four-month-old baby, died and 100 were injured Saturday after dozens of tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma.¹
• Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Sunday declared an emergency in 12 counties, including Oklahoma County, which holds Oklahoma City. About 80 miles (128 km) south of the city, in a town called Sulphur, at least two tornadoes were reported.²
• One death was reported in Sulphur, another in Marietta, and two in Holdenville — including the baby. All three towns were reported to have endured EF-3-level tornadoes.³
• Stitt said that in Murray County, which includes Sulphur, over 1.8K people were without power. He also noted that all the downtown businesses in the town were destroyed.⁴
• Six states, including Nebraska and Iowa — the latter of which reported one death Friday — experienced a combined 106 tornadoes between Friday and Saturday. While roughly 33K lost power in Oklahoma, 67K were without power in Texas.²
• High winds, heavy rain, and hail were also seen from East Texas to Illinois and Wisconsin on Sunday, impacting over 47M people. Washington and Kansas also faced flooding from winter storms, with Pres. Joe Biden declaring an emergency in those states.⁵

Sources: ¹KOCO, ²CBS, ³FOX Weather, ⁴Independent and ⁵Reuters.com.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Green Oklahoma. These tornadoes should draw attention to the effects climate change has on wind-based extreme weather. The warming atmosphere has led to more unstable low-level air, which can cause more thunderstorms and more powerful twisters. We shouldn't blame every tornado on climate change, but we should acknowledge the role it's playing.
• Narrative B, as provided by Nationalgeographic. It's difficult to link tornadoes to climate change because tornado data has only been officially recorded for three decades. Therefore scientists can't say whether there has been a significant change in tornado patterns over a long period of time. All in all, more research must be conducted to draw any conclusions.

Predictions