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

[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.