President Joe Biden said Monday the historic tornadoes that hit the United States on Saturday were partially a consequence of climate change, as well as El Niño.
Biden said it was too early to say with “absolute certainty” that the devastating storms were a result of climate change, but he promised to investigate.
“I’m going to be talking with the Environmental Protection Agency and I’m going to talk with other agencies to determine,” Biden said. “In fact, a matter of fact, some of it has to do with El Niño.”
Scientists point to climate patterns like the El Niño and La Niña to explain unusual weather events, especially in the mid-1990s.
Biden said the storm’s intensity was “unusual.”
“It is unusual how it happened, how many places have touched down and the length of the path,” he said.
The president appeared slightly more hesitant to blame the storm on the world’s failure to stop global warming, as he suggested on Saturday.
“There’s a lot of things that we don’t know for certain and I don’t want to say anything that is not precisely true,” he said. “What is certain, it is one of the worst tornado disasters we’ve had in the country.”
Biden said he would visit Kentucky on Wednesday to personally view the storm damage.
“I haven’t decided where I’m going yet,” said Joe Biden about his trip to Kentucky, just minutes before the White House released a travel advisory to the public detailing a visit to the towns of Mayfield and Dawson Springs.
Biden expressed amazement that some towns had been wiped out by the storms and promised to work with state and local governments to rebuild.
“This administration has made it clear to every governor, whatever they need when they need it. Make it known to me. It will get to them as rapidly as we can,” he said.
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