This is Scientific American 60 Second Science.

I'm Julia Rosen.

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What could fires in Central America have to do with the deadliest outbreak of tornadoes

in recent US history?

More than you might think, according to a new study.

Researchers found that smoke wafting north from the Gulf of Mexico

worsened the already stormy weather brewing across the southeastern US on April 27th, 2011. That afternoon,

122 twisters tore across the country, killing 313 people.

It's not that the outbreak happened because of the smoke.

Pablo Saire of the University of Iowa and the author of a new study published in the journal

Geophysical research letters.

What's happening is that the smoke interacts with clouds and with solar radiation.

Smoke consists of tiny particles called aerosols which can have complicated effects on

weather.

Society used a model to explore whether these particles influenced the tornado outbreak of April 27th.

He found smoke-made twisters more likely to strike and more ferocious when they did.

However, at the moment,

weather forecasts don't consider aerosol particles.

This is difficult because weather malls need

to be finished very fast because you want weather predictions for today, not for tomorrow.

And including these aerosols, it makes it slower.

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