Will tornadoes and waterspouts thrive as Earth heats up?

Unusually warm waters off the coast of Sicily helped spawn a “waterspout” that sank a superyacht earlier this week, leaving several people dead or missing.

Tornadoes are among nature’s most terrifying spectacles. These rotating columns of air are called tornadoes when they form over land and waterspouts when they form over water, though there are subtle differences which we’ll get into. While meteorologists have announced with some confidence some of the probable weather effects of climate change, tornadoes remain rather more mysterious.

But, it’s a question that people…

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