# Do other countries have an equivalent to Tornado Alley?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 8, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218 "2007-05-08T12:32:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/1 "2007-05-08T12:32:11Z")
My limited understanding of the phenomenon is that the warm, moist air that tends to come up from the Gulf collides with the cooler, drier air coming out of the northwest and Canda and that’s what makes Tornado Alley…well, Tornado Alley. Are there similar places in other countries?
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/2 "2007-05-08T18:10:13Z")
I don’t believe there is any equivalent. Tornado Alley in the US is unique.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/3 "2007-05-08T18:32:31Z")
I don’t think any place could match tornado alley. However, I would imagine the Bay of Bengal generates moisture in a roughly analogous way to the Gulf of Mexico, and it _does_ look like that spawns a fair number of tornadoes in [China](http://www.tornadoproject.com/alltorns/china.htm) and [Bangladesh](http://www.tornadoproject.com/alltorns/bangladesh.htm).
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/4 "2007-05-08T19:01:26Z")
[This site](http://library.thinkquest.org/J0113247/web%20pages/fourthtornadospage.htm) says Australia is probably number two behind the US, which sort of surprises me:
> [@](#):
>
> Direct comparisons of relative tornado frequencies in various countries are biased because observational data are often lacking in sparsely settled regions. It appears, however, that Australia, where several hundred per year have been reported, has the dubious honour of second place.
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### Author:  [@ShiefferSaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShiefferSaw)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/5 "2007-05-08T19:10:50Z")
There have to be other countries out there who get a lot of tornadoes, but I can’t see there being another “Alley” like we have in the US. The conditions are just too perfect.
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### Author:  [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/6 "2007-05-08T19:20:34Z")
Four replies and not a single mention of mobile homes. . .
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### Author:  [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/7 "2007-05-08T20:31:48Z")
After having two tornadoes in very quick succession then the UK City of [Birmingham](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4339510.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4339510.stm) can lame claim to having one.
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### Author:  [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2007, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/8 "2007-05-09T00:49:16Z")
Tornadoes occur on every continent except Antartica, but the incidence is much higher in No. America, east of the Rocky mtns.
Here’s a cite w/ a map showing distribution worldwide:
[http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Atmosphere/tornado/agri\_map.html](http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Atmosphere/tornado/agri_map.html)
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### Author:  [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/9 "2007-05-09T00:55:41Z")
I thought I had heard that some place in France has tornadoes at a relatively high rate. Anyone got the Dope on that? ETA: I should clicked on it earlier, but A.R. Cane’s map shows a surprising prevalence of the storms in Europe. Interesting.
I live in the Mojave Desert, where dust devils are common. They are nothing like the storms in Tornado Alley, but are still pretty awe-inspiring and can cause nasty conditions.
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/10 "2007-05-09T02:17:53Z")
[QUOTE=A.R. Cane]
Tornadoes occur on every continent except Antartica, but the incidence is much higher in No. America, east of the Rocky mtns.
Here’s a cite w/ a map showing distribution worldwide:
[http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Atmosphere/tornado/agri\_map.html](http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Atmosphere/tornado/agri_map.html)
[/QUOTE]
Well that map is completely bizarre, as far as Australia is concerned anyway. It shows almost all of them occurring in the western plains which are dry and flat and in drought maybe half the time - very little moisture there and I’ve never heard of a tornado there in living memory. The places we actually get tornadoes (cyclones, we call them), across the entire northern quarter of the continent (ie the tropical part) has exactly one marked.
Darwin (central north coast) alone was hit by cyclones in 1878, 1891, 1897, 1937, and 1974.
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2007, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/11 "2007-05-09T03:50:01Z")
[QUOTE=Askance]
Well that map is completely bizarre, as far as Australia is concerned anyway. It shows almost all of them occurring in the western plains which are dry and flat and in drought maybe half the time - very little moisture there and I’ve never heard of a tornado there in living memory. The places we actually get tornadoes (cyclones, we call them), across the entire northern quarter of the continent (ie the tropical part) has exactly one marked.
[/QUOTE]
Isn’t our ‘cyclone’ generally equated with what others call a ‘typhoon’ or ‘hurricane’? Tornadoes are different again. I have heard of them occurring in inland Australia as suggested by the linked map. And [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=417869&highlight=water+spout+sydney) of a waterspout off Wollongong last month suggests that they also occur in coastal areas.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2007, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/12 "2007-05-09T03:56:22Z")
What \*\*Cunctator \*\* said, **Askance**. You’re confusing two different phenomena.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/13 "2007-05-09T03:59:51Z")
I’ve read that conditions in the south central United States are uniquely ideal for creating tornadoes and that half of the tornadoes in the world occur in Texas.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2007, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-an-equivalent-to-tornado-alley/403218/14 "2007-05-09T05:01:21Z")
You silly people. [Uncle Cecil has addressed this.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_059.html)