I opened this thread to discuss the unusally active severe weather that we've seen thus far this year (which isn't even half over!) From the terrible winter storms, to the earthquake in Japan, to all the tornadoes that have been ripping apart cities, what are your thoughts on all these recent events? My thoughts: While the planet is getting hotter, our population is increasing, and thus the likelihood of encountering a tornado (or any other natural disaster) is increasing. Also, we have better resources for knowing when an event has occured. I am fascinated by storms, I always have been since I was a child, but I have a healthy respect for them. I don't want to see death and destruction, but I want to gain a better understanding of the hows and whys of storms. When we better understand them, hopefully we'll be able to better predict them (not that a lot of people take tornado warnings seriously, anyway.) Today (June 1) marks the start of the tornado season where I live, and I am beginning to dread it. We don't usually get big tornadoes, and the few we get usually are small. The operative word being "usually"... Ok, sorry for the sort of rambling post. Discuss amongst yourselves.