Thunderstorms...are they stronger these days?

After the tornado outbreak of April 27^th 2011 we all now seem to be very weather aware. Darkening skies and the far off sound of thunder makes us a little jumpy and nervous. We have weather apps. on our phones and news/weather stations saved on our computers. So with all this information available to us at a moments notice…I have a question for all you part time meteorologist. Are the storms stronger now than they were say…five or ten years ago? Many say they are.

Some blame the stronger storms on global warming. While this seems a little far fetched to most I can’t bring myself to rule it out either. Global warming is supposed to be melting away the polar icecaps which would in turn put more moisture into the atmosphere. Moisture is one of the key ingredients for a thunderstorm to develop.

Another factor needed for storm development is heat. Heat provides the lift that a thunderstorm needs to grow and gain strength. Hmmm…could global warming actually be providing more heat to our planets atmosphere thus making our storms stronger here in the south? For that matter, storms all over the world the past couple of years have seemed increasingly devastating.

The other main player in building a strong storm is instability. This too can easily be attributed to global warming. More moisture and more heat equals more unstable air. So this takes me back to my question I asked…are storms stronger now than they used to be? Or perhaps do we just simply pay more attention than before…what do you think?