Gazette-Mail. May29, 2024.
Editorial: West Virginia becoming part of Tornado Alley
In the past two months, at least 11 tornadoes have hit West Virginia as powerful storms surged through the Mountain State. It’s a number that almost defies belief over such a short period of time, and it could go up as more is learned about the most recent sightings.
Over Memorial Day weekend, at least two tornadoes touched down in the region, one in Putnam County and another in Jackson, Ohio. Severe storms knocked out electricity for more than 100,000 Appalachian Power customers, about 18,000 of whom remained without power early Tuesday.
On April 2, strong winds and driving rain caused massive damage and flooding in West Virginia and surrounding states, in some cases snapping interstate billboards in half. At first, the National Weather Service reported that five tornadoes had hit the region that day. As further analysis was conducted, the number moved up to eight and, earlier this month, the NWS confirmed that 10 tornadoes had touched down in West Virginia alone on April 2, which, not surprisingly, is a record for the state.
In fact, 15 tornadoes have hit West Virginia so far in 2024, eclipsing the previous record of 14 in 1998, and the year’s not even half over.
The Associated Press reported that West Virginia averages two tornadoes a year, although high-number years might make that average a bit deceptive. For instance, the 15 tornadoes this year could account for two tornadoes a year over a 30-year period. In any event, tornadoes used to be fairly uncommon in West Virginia. However, like flooding and precipitation that keeps exceeding previous records, climate change has likely spurred an increase in twisters hitting the Mountain State.
Unlike record heat, rainfall, flooding and hurricanes, there isn’t as much of a direct correlation between climate change and more frequent or fiercer tornadoes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stated that part of the missing link is a lack of research, because tornadoes are more difficult to study than other weather phenomena. An article published last year by National Public Radio cites NOAA as stating that only 2-in-10 supercell storm formations produce tornadoes, which makes predictability and, therefore, data collection, more difficult.
When tornadoes swept across four states in 2021, creating damage that stretched for more than 200 miles and causing multiple fatalities, Central Michigan University meteorology professor John T. Allen penned a column for USA Today calling for more research into how a warming climate correlated with such storms.
At first, it was thought that perhaps several tornadoes had popped up across the path of damage, which would be similar, although on a much different scale, to what happened in West Virginia in April. However, it was eventually determined that parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky were hit by two, long-tracked tornadoes, one of which tore through the region for 166 miles, which was nearly unprecedented, especially for that part of the country.
What researchers can say is that a warming climate produces more storm and superstorm cells, which creates the potential for more tornadoes over a longer period of time in a given year, according to NOAA.
“Tornado season” used to refer to the spring and summer months in the Great Plains, with storms moving south to north as those months progressed, across geographic locales referred to as Tornado Alley. Those distinctions mean less these days, as tornadoes can hit just about anywhere (they always could, but the recent frequency of such storms elsewhere has stretched traditional boundaries) and the window for severe storms has increased.
For instance, March is a typical time to see increased thunderstorms because warm and cool air currents begin to clash. The Weather Channel reported 236 that tornadoes hit a broad swath of the United States in March 2022, a number not seen since 1950.
In the NPR report, a NOAA official said tornadoes will likely begin to occur more in the winter months because of continuing record heat.
CMU’s Miller noted in his column that tornado patterns had already started shifting eastward. Oh, and those two, long-track tornadoes he was writing about? They occurred on Dec. 10.
The tornadoes that hit West Virginia over the past two months are probably far from the last the state will see in 2024. Until climate change is addressed in a meaningful way, severe storms accompanied by massive floods, power outages and damage to crucial infrastructure will be the norm.
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The Intelligencer. May 28, 2024.
Editorial: Getting Broadband Throughout W.Va.
“It will reach every address, every single address or you don’t get any of it,” said West Virginia Economic Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael. “This is a monumental leap forward to get every single address. And we’re doing it post-haste. As fast as you can move it.”
Carmichael was talking about broadband internet access in West Virginia, now that the state is able to draw down $1.2 billion in federal dollars to tackle the problem.
According to WV MetroNews, federal officials were baffled by the approach taken by the state Office of Broadband.
Evan Feinman, director of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program with the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications Administration, said the Mountain State “took a pretty unique approach that it took me a while to get my head all the way around — target regions comprised of different sub-target areas and a really aggressive approach toward making sure low-income folks in West Virginia were going to be able to take service and afford it. … So it really required a lot of thinking, hard work and late nights and a clear understanding that this was a shared endeavor.”
It is refreshing to hear from someone at a federal agency who took the time and effort to listen to a West Virginia idea and figure out how to make it work. Credit surely goes in part to Kelly Workman, director of the state Office of Broadband, who is still cautious in her enthusiasm. She told WV MetroNews “With a $1.2 billion program, you can imagine that there must be a very detailed plan for execution. So the plan is approved. The second part of this is we have to detail the budget.
“There’s a deployment phase. Once we ensure that we can reach all the unserved locations in West Virginia, we can move on to non-deployment activities. So, we’ve proposed some non-deployment activities related to workforce.”
Good. It appears as though state and federal officials started this project with the determination to get it right for West Virginia. It won’t happen overnight; and residents who know the terrain can be forgiven for wondering whether we really can get quality broadband internet access to every address. But the ball is rolling. Those who worked so hard to make it happen likely won’t relax until the job is done, but the rest of us can offer congratulations on what seems to be a fantastic start.
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Parkersburg News and Sentinel. May 29, 2024.
Editorial: Urgency: Corrections department still has work ahead
West Virginia’s National Guard repeatedly comes to the rescue when the state is in need. Whether it be a pandemic, a natural disaster or simple bureaucratic/governmental incompetence, we know we can count on the men and women of the Guard to make a difference.
Nearly two years ago, Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for our 17 correctional facilities because of severe staffing shortages. More than 730 members of the WVNG stepped up to rotate into positions in those facilities.
“Today I am ending our long-standing emergency as the National Guard has completed its mission,” Justice said last week.
Wonderful.
But how did we fix the problem? Justice and lawmakers did work toward increasing salaries, so correctional officers would be less tempted to move to other state or federal systems. That was a start. The real push came when 38 Guardsmen were hired in full-time capacities by the corrections department.
While taxpayers are surely grateful those 38 made such a decision, it still amounts to the WVNG saving the day. There must be more work ahead.
Justice seems to understand that.
“Do I think there’s more that we will have to do in the future?” Justice said. “Probably so.”
The question is whether lawmakers and corrections department officials will maintain their sense of urgency now that so many from the WVNG have bailed them out.
They must. Though Guardsmen have proved over and over they are going to be “Always ready, always there!” for West Virginia, it’s time the folks in Charleston made sure — on this and many other fronts — they don’t always have to be.
END