A Question for all the European Folks

[kriadydragon]

Actually it's my mom's question. She's been curious as to whether or not tornadoes happen anywhere in Europe. I'm curious to know where else besides the US tornadoes happen. I know they occur in Australia but where else? Who else has to suffer tornado warnings, wall clouds, huddling in basements and leaky cellars and the terror of storm chasers screaming about how a tornado is heading right down the street you happen to live on? I hate tornado season :S

Comments

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

I am not sure but my first and only experience was one I will NEVER forget
We had NO idea we were traveling in 'tornado alley' till a Nebraska State Police officer told me........it must have been second week in May..
The place where we were staying came within 2 miles of one........but what
I recall most acutely is how black the sky was...................
It made the Wizard of OZ version look poor in comparison

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

It freaks me out every time a storm comes in and it gets uber dark. Even worse is when it goes suddenly still, then gets really windy. But we've just learned, recently, that windy is actually a good thing. It was something like the more windy it is - and I think they're talking more straight line winds - the less a tornado will be able to form.

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

Even worse is when it goes suddenly still, then gets really windy



STILL is what happened in Nebraska as it turned very very black but then as we began to unload the car at the motel it became VERY VERY windy.
:-/

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

Tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica. However, the vast majority of tornadoes in the world occur in the Tornado Alley region of the United States, although they can occur nearly anywhere in North America. They also occasionally occur in south-central and eastern Asia, the Philippines, northern and east-central South America, Southern Africa, northwestern and southeast Europe, western and southeastern Australia, and New Zealand. Tornadoes can be detected before or as they occur through the use of Pulse-Doppler radar by recognizing patterns in velocity and reflectivity data, such as hook echoes, as well as by the efforts of storm spotters

[tj-teejay.livejournal.com]

I must admit that, in all my waking life, I don't recall ever having born witness to a tornado except on TV. (Which I count as a good thing.) It's not entirely impossible that we might get one in Germany, but I don't recall ever having had a tornado sweep through here.

What we do get occasionally are bad storms. But they'll more be like thunderstorms. Heavy rain, gale-force winds, that kind of thing. It often causes for roof tiles to come loose, cellars to flood (so that the fire department has to come and pump the water out) or trees fall over and actually kill people (or damage the train tracks so that public transport becomes mayhem).

Upon checking wikipedia, apparently there actually are tornados in Germany, but I don't think they're ever as destructive as in the US. It probably has do to with climate-related things, because I understand that for a tornado to form, there needs to be certain weather circumstances.

And, yes, of course we also get storms warnings. But I've never had to hide in the cellar for one.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Upon checking wikipedia, apparently there actually are tornadoes in Germany, but I don't think they're ever as destructive as in the US. It probably has do to with climate-related things, because I understand that for a tornado to form, there needs to be certain weather circumstances.

Being very land locked as a lot to do with it, I believe, as well as the terrain. Mountainous areas like Utah do get tornadoes but not as often as areas like the midwest. Although Utah can get some pretty psychotic winds.

We have a basement now - a nice basement, thank goodness. In our old house we had a small, leaky cellar that was horrible to wait in. One time we even had a gas leak in the cellar, didn't even know it until we started getting light headed. We always semi-joke how that year that particular tornado actually saved our lives.

[swanpride.livejournal.com]

Urgh...I can't imagine. (I'm so happy that we don't use gas in our home at all).

[saphirablue]

Oh, I'm in Austria and last year a Tornado occured about 5 kilometers or so from my place.

I've also heard about Tornados down in Burgenland near the "Neusiedlersee" which is a huge lake and the area around it is very flat.

I've also heard about Tornados in Germany.

But, they are not very common. The situation is nothing like in the US but in the last years it seems to me that they are occuring more often.

Here is a link to the german Wikipedia site of Tornados. I translated the "Tornados in Austria" section for you:

The worst registred tornado happened on July 10th 1916 in Wiener Neustadt (in the south of Lower Austria). A strong F3/T7 moved over the north of the town, killed 32 people and injured more than 300. Many solid built houses were destroyed, the "path" was more than 20 kilometers long.

Some more tornados:

July 4th 1926 - a F1/T3 moved through Salzburg, 3 people killed
May 9th 1961 - a F2/T5 moved through Kleinthal near Graz (Styria), 1 man killed, 3 injured
July 27th 1998 - a F3/T6 destroyed some buildings, the "path" was 8 kilometers long
May 13th 2003 - a super cell with hail(6 cm in diameter) produced 2 tornados in Vienna - one was registred a F1/T3, some people were injured due to the storms and the hail
March 11th 2006 - a F2/T5 throws a minibus through the air (Weitensfeld in Gurktal, Carinthia)
May 11th 2009 - a weak Tornado was registred in Atzenbrugg near Tulln (Lower Austria)
May 13th 2010 - a shortlived Tornado was spotted over a forest near Mogersdorf (Burgenland)
May 26th 2010 - a F0/T1 in the province of Tulln (Lower Austria) caused damage on power poles, trees and cars

From 1951 until (June) 2009 the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics registred over 90 tornados in Austria.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this :D Very interesting.

We do seem to be getting a lot of tornadoes this year but the really odd thing is that they're occurring in areas where, normally, they aren't quite so prevalent. It's usually Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska that get the brunt - especially Oklahoma who usually end up suffering the F5s and even F6s. But, this year, not so much for us.

[poorfenny.livejournal.com]

You're not kidding! I'm in Southeastern US, and I'm used to hearing about tornadoes occurring near me. Occasionally a few will venture into my area, but I had never personally experienced one. Then out of the blue we had almost 200 in one day in April! The sirens were blaring for so long that I kind of got used to sound. It was unsettling, to say the least.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm in St. Louis and Missouri has gotten hit by THREE significant tornadoes since New Year's Eve.

NYE: F3 - hit Sunset Hills, Fenton area - south St. Louis County
Good Friday: F4 - hit Northwest St. Louis County & city - Lambert Airport took a direct hit. NO FATALITIES
May 22, 2011: F5 - leveled Joplin, MO, (southwestern MO) death toll up to 155 people.

Europe usually doesn't get hit by tornadoes, since they don't have the same climatic conditions that we have over the Midwest.

One of the freakiest things I've ever seen video of was of a FIRE tornado in Canada.

[a-pilgrim-soul.livejournal.com]

Tornadoes are actually incredibly common here in the UK but they are normally extremely weak and its rare for them to do any real damage. We get occasional wrecked garden sheds and I've seen one go through a field tossing bales of straw around but never known for there to be any injuries.

We're actually incredibly lucky here, we don't get extreme weather in the same way as the rest of the world does. Hence why the whole country grinds to a halt at the slightest snow fall.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Hence why the whole country grinds to a halt at the slightest snow fall.

Heh, sounds like Texas;) If we got so much as a patch of ice on the road everything was canceled. While in Maine and Alaska kids are going to school in a near-blizzards.

[swanpride.livejournal.com]

In Germany, Tornadoes are a very rare thing compared to the US, especially F4 or F5 tornados. And european windstorm is more likely, but even then we just go to our homes until the storm is over, no need to go into the cellar. (the way most houses are build, you are not that much more protected in the cellar either way...after all, we tend to build our homes like fortresses, nearly every house has a cellar, and nearly all of them are build out of stone rather than wood or other materials.)

We are really lucky here. We don't get this really extreme weather (or strong earthquakes, or have active vulcanos), but yes, the last two winter, when the snowfall became heavier than usual, it put nearly everything out of comission, especially at places where normally isn't snow at all.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of the cold but I'll take a major snowstorm over a tornado any day. Not that I think snow storms are any less dangerous, but at least you know what to expect. With tornadoes it's like playing Russian Roulette since you never know if, when and where one will come down or how big it's going to be.

[swanpride.livejournal.com]

I agree...it's one of the peaks living here.

[leoraine.livejournal.com]

I'm from Czech and three days ago there was a tornado in a city called Pardubice. It was rather... surprising, as we don't have tornadoes. Sure, there was one really bad one F3 a decade ago, but... nope, it's not usual here.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Tornadoes seem to be popping up all over the place, lately.

[swanpride.livejournal.com]

We had more storm and unusual weather too in the last couple of years...winter which were very cold, stormy weather, summer in spring and rain in the summer...

[mmneely932.livejournal.com]

We have tornadoes fairly often here in Tennessee. I have a closet under the stairs and use it frequently.
In 1998 we had one come through my city, Clarksville, Tn, and it totally destroyed our downtown area. We're still rebuilding. It was really odd I woke up because it was too quiet. I guess it had gone through and we had slept through it, then when it was over I woke up. I went downstairs, it was about 4:00am, and turned on the news and the reports were just starting to come in to the media. Luckily no one was killed.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Wow O_o Scary stuff.

[ameshinju.livejournal.com]

Canada gets tornadoes. I've never personally seen one, but we usually get a few tornadoe warnings for my town every year...just never actually form completely. I've seen one funnel cloud, but it didn't reach the ground.

I hope I never experience one.