Last August 14 at approximately between 3pm and 5pm, a series of tornado formed in the vicinity of Los Banos Laguna which was witnessed by thousands of students, civilians and even nuns and priests during the ravage of the angry twister. This is the Nth time that the Philippines experienced tornadoes which is becoming more and more frequent as years go by. According to Pagasa, it is only common that tropical climate such as ours would experience such phenomenon. But scientists all over the Globe think otherwise because the Philippines has never been a “tornado alley”. If ever the Philippines has encountered tornadoes in the past, it was for sure an isolated case and very much rare, spanning years before it happens again. But as we approached the third millennium, more and more cases of tornado formation has been reported, sursprising occuring at an average of 4 tornadoes a month. Actual reported and documented cases of tornadoes recently happened aside from Los Banos were in Mactan (August 8, 2008), Sultan Kudarat (June 12, 2008), Lingayen, Pangasinan (June 5, 2008), and Southern Leyte (May 21, 2008).

here are actual videos of the tornado in Los Banos, Laguna last Aug 14. 2008. Watch carefully how the funnel develops. It’s like watching a Hollywood movie live!

Haven’t you noticed that its already rainy season here in the Philippines yet the temperature is so high that you almost swear we are still in the summer season. We are in a major climate change. And if this will pursue, the scene in the movie “The Day after Tomorrow” in which LA was struck by tornadoes, would probably become a reality here in our country if we don’t do anything to help the atmosphere regain its former balance. If you happened to watch the documentary film of Al Gore called “An Inconvenient Truth”, you would understand in lay man’s term why we are experiencing extreme heat.

As the ozone layer thins in the atmosphere, the heat from the sun that is filtered by the ozone layer are not released iun the space, thus trapping the heat here in our atmosphere causing global warming. This my dear friends is what we call the “green House effect” wherein heat is trapped causing various climate changes such as cyclones, storms, hails, melting of the ice caps in the polar regions and now tornadoes.

The heat today is so intolerable that even dogs bark when they are exposed to the sun as early as its first rising. Before we used to say that the early morning sunshine is healthy for the skin, but I dare you to expose yourself in the sun as early as 6 am and yopu would feel the burning sensation on your skin. Usually animals are the first one to notice changes in the environment. Dogs bark and cows moo incessantly when earthquakes is about to strike. But in this case, the barometer for global warming are the dogs who used to lie down before in the heat of the sun to warm their bodies during the early morning sunrise. Unfortunately, they cannot anymore tolerate the ehat of the sun even in the early hours of the day. Even cases of skin cancers increased due to the ultraviolet rays that enters in our ozone-stripped atmosphere.

So what is the correlation of the tornadoes and global warming? Simple. As the air becomes warmer and warmer here on land and sea, the tendency of the water to evaporate becomes high. When water evaporates, rain clouds are formed and when they bumped into each other, thundercloudes are produced. As the Cool air from these thunderclouds starts to mix with the warm air on land and see, they begin to revolve and move, causing friction in the air thus creating tornadoes.

If you can’t imagine what I am saying, here is a diagram below to show you how exactly tornadoes are formed.

If unnatural heat will continue to build, the Philippines will virtually become Asia’s tornado alley. Millions of lives will be at risk since we are not accustomed to tornadoes and people here are not equipped with tornado warnings, to say more, majority have no capacity to build their own underground shelters. The only way to lessen the heat is to discontinue the use of carbon emitting appliances and vehicles, restore water sheds, reforestation of jungles and mountains and a firm law that knows no one, even the big fishes. During a face off with a tornado, our concrete homes, no matter how sturdy they may be, are no match for the power of nature. So act now. Stop smoking. Plant trees on your backyard, get involved and maybe you won’t get the chance to go to OZ.