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I heard an item on the radio where the twin twisters that clobbered a Nebraska community were said to be described by meteorologists as rare; the question "Is this due to climate change?" was also posed and left dangling. Investigating further at Google News, I found another item where a storm chaser was saying "I've never seen anything like this".
I then found an article by Andrew Freedman which says there's a wide range of tornado types and that storms which split aren't all that rare.
Pioneering tornado scientist Theodore Fujita, who devised the Fujita Tornado Damage Scale that is still used to classify tornado intensity, identified many types of tornadoes, some of which bore similarities to the twin twisters in Nebraska on Monday.
For example, the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965, during which nearly 50 tornadoes touched down and 271 people died, there was a well-documented dual tornado that struck close to Toledo, Ohio. A study Fujita published with his colleagues found that this tornado split for only a short time, coalescing back into a larger funnel soon after a famous picture was taken that bears some resemblance to the Pilger tornado.
"A single funnel split into two and then reorganized into one after about a minute," the study says.
Interesting reading.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 19 2014, @03:12PM
Tornadoes are not rare. Especially in Nebraska (I grew up there). We hit the cellar many many many many times usually at least 3 times a summer. I knew people who had their houses wiped out. In 1977 my father was in the city of grand island when it was flattened by 7 of them.
Last year was the real anomaly. With near 0 of them.
The only reason this storm got some news was the 'dual tornado' bit and people died. In Nebraska there are dozens of tornadoes every year. Many do nothing other than tear up corn pastures.
However, people watch movies like twister and think f5's are common as dirt. They are super rare. But they do happen.