A question about tornadoes in the UK?

Question

I know that tornadoes occur every year somewhere in the UK and that they will increase in frquecny with global warming (natural or man-made) however what I'd like to know is whether they are also likely to increase in intensity? Will we also be seeing more T8 tornadoes and perhaps even higher as the climate changes?

Answer 1

Scientifically there is no direct relation between Global Warming and intensity of tornadoes but in fact an increase in the intensity of recent tornadoes is recorded.

Answer 2

Tornadoes occur every year in the UK as you have said. In fact the UK has the most tornadoes per unit area in the world. Even so, it has very few tornadoes compared with the USA.

Most tornadoes are F0 to F2. Every year in the USA there will be one or two F3 tornadoes and F4 and F5 are very rare. If F3 tornadoes come along at the rate of one per thousand and your country has, say, twenty five tornadoes a year, you can expect an F3 tornado once in forty years. This has nothing to do with global warming.

For tornadoes to increase in frequency, you are going to need an increase in the number of severe thunderstorms. There is no reason to suspect that this will be the case in the UK.