Interesting Theory: Man Thinks Roundabouts Create Tornadoes

A Pennsylvania man thinks that roundabouts like this one
cause tornadoes. I'm not sure how, but this guy is confident.

For some reason, there has arguably been more tornadoes than usual this year and last year in Pennsylvania.

Nobody is sure why.  It's probably just bad luck. But a Pennsylvania man has a novel theory as to why his state has had more than its share of twisters.

Traffic roundabouts. That's right. Traffic circles.  This guy is convinced that the growing popularity of traffic circles and roundabouts is causing those Pennsylvania twisters. 

By the way, the man has an alternative pronunciation of the word "tornado." He pronounces it "tornader."

Here's what he said when he called into television station WNEP's "Talkback 16" segment:

"We didn't have tornaders here until we started putting in traffic circles. Cause, on account of the - you want to know why? When people go round and round in circles, it causes disturbances in the atmosphere, and causes tornaders."

That is, um, interesting explanation for Pennsylvania's bad weather. And laughable. Which means of course, this unidentified dude has gotten a lot of reaction on Twitter.

One person wrote: "Not to mention that carousel rides ramp up in the spring. A mere coincidence?"

Another Twitter wag said Donald Trump should appoint this tornader guy as EPA chief.

Yet another person wrote: "Jesus, tornado alley must be in England then. There is a roundabout everywhere there."

For the record, Great Britain, on average gets about 30 tornadoes per year. The United States, though admittably much larger, gets more than 1,000 twisters annually.

Where I live in Vermont, they've installed several roundabouts on the states roads in the past few years. The Green Mountain State averages one tornado per year, but we haven't had one in five years. I wonder what "tornader" guy thinks of that?