Are there tornadoes outside of the united states

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Even in the United States, we generally see that about 75 percent of our twisters are weak, and 22 percent are strong -- only the remaining 3 percent are judged violent [source: Jensen]. Europe might see the same thing, but because they're getting fewer tornadoes, the big ones are rare. North America, unfortunately, just gets so many more tornadoes that -- as luck of the draw has it -- we're simply bound to get more severe ones, too. Sign up for our Newsletter!

Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Forces of Nature. As hot air rises off the Gulf, it crawls north across the Plains. Where it meets air blowing west out of the American Rockies.

When the two winds come together, they can create a vortex of wind that spins horizontally. Now, here's where that warm air is key. As it rises — as warm air likes to do — it tilts the tube vertical to form a rotating storm called a supercell. Markowski: Anywhere where you can find warm water that's equator-ward of some area that also finds itself downwind of a major mountain chain, tornadoes tend to be an elevated risk.

Narrator: Take Bangladesh, for example. There, warm, humid air spreads from the Bay of Bengal and travels north. Where it overlaps with winds blowing southeast out of the Himalayan Mountains. This produces an average of around six tornadoes each year. Then there's the more obvious reason: The U. America's is also a much longer tornado season -- the storms can happen year-round here -- while countries like Bangladesh have brief, turbulent seasons that are just a few weeks long.

But other parts of the world have suffered through their fair share of twisters; every continent has been struck except for Antarctica where no warm air means no tornadoes. On April 26, , the deadliest tornado ever struck Bangladesh, killing about 1, people, injuring 12,, and leaving 80, homeless. Most experts think the extent of the damage was due to a combination of the force of the winds, the poor quality of home construction, and the extremely high population density.

South Africa is blasted by tornadoes during its Boreal summer when it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere , and one storm that struck the southeastern coastal town of Umtata on December 15, nearly killed Nelson Mandela.