More Tornadoes: Climate Change, Winds, or Just Better Technology

I'll take item #2 and #3 and disregard #1.

US meteorologists warned Thursday it would be a mistake to blame climate change for a seeming increase in tornadoes in the wake of deadly storms that have ripped through the US south.

"If you look at the past 60 years of data, the number of tornadoes is increasing significantly, but it's agreed upon by the tornado community that it's not a real increase," said Grady Dixon, assistant professor of meteorology and climatology at Mississippi State University.

"It's having to do with better (weather tracking) technology, more population, the fact that the population is better educated and more aware. So we're seeing them more often," Dixon said.

There's more info in the linked story. Bottom line, we're seeing more tornadoes this year thanks to the La Niña weather cycle, and thanks to Doppler radar and a host of trained storm chasers, we now spot tornadoes that would have lived and died unnoticed in sparsely populated areas 30 years ago. Consequently, the count goes up.