in his village in the southern Lötschental valley.

, which provide critical information for forecasts. And weather service workers aren’t being allowed to travel to help train local disaster officials for what to do when they get dangerous weather warnings, he said.Though the number of tornadoes is nearly at a record pace, Thompson and other experts said the tornado outbreak of the last few days is mostly normal for this time of year.

For tornadoes to form, the atmosphere needs a collision of warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and storm systems chugging through via the jet stream, the river of air that brings weather fronts from west to east, said Thompson, Bluestein and Harold Brooks of the weather service’s National Severe Storm Laboratory.“The moisture that we’re getting from the Gulf of Mexico is a lot more than we used to get,” said Bluestein. “That makes the likelihood that we’re getting a stronger storm higher and that’s pretty unusual.”Destroyed homes are seen after a severe storm passed through the area, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in London, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Destroyed homes are seen after a severe storm passed through the area, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in London, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)Temperatures in the Gulf are a couple of degrees warmer than usual for this time of year, according to the weather service.

The connection between climate change and tornadoes is not as well understood as the links between other types of extreme weather such as heavy rainfall and heat waves, experts say.

“Under the climate change scenario, we’re kind of supercharging the atmosphere on some days and then actually reducing the favorability on others,” said Ohio State University atmospheric sciences professor Jana Houser.The state began looking for ways to improve storm outcomes after Hurricane Ivan in 2004 jolted the state’s insurance market. “Ivan was absolutely devastating,” said Alabama Insurance Commissioner Mark Fowler. “Our market was going crazy, insurers were leaving.”

It became the only state to implement mandatory minimum insurance discounts for Fortified homes, currently as much as half off the wind portion of homeowners’ premiums. It also launched theincentive program, offering grants of up to $10,000 for homeowners retrofitting their houses to Fortified standards.

The state has doled out $86 million for 8,700 Fortified retrofits since 2015. Fowler credits the initiative with also catalyzing demand for new Fortified construction and incentivizing contractors and inspectors to learn the standards.“It worked like gangbusters,” he said. “We’ve seen the market substantially stabilized.”