Twisters and Trends: An Analysis of U.S. Tornado Activity and Climate Change | The Heritage Foundation

While human-caused climate change is often blamed for an increase in severe weather, the most severe storm element—the destructive tornado—has decreased markedly in frequency since the 1950s.
Claims that severe storms are causing more destruction are only true because there is now more infrastructure to destroy than ever before, not because of carbon-dioxide emissions and climate change...
Key Takeaways

• There has been a 50 percent reduction in strong tornadoes in the U.S. since the 1950s; weak tornado counts increased until 1990 due to better reporting.
• When tornadoes do occur, growing population and infrastructure put more property and lives at risk, but growth-normalized tornado damage has decreased since 1950.