# Tornadoes outside USA
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 10, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459 "2008-06-10T16:16:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/1 "2008-06-10T16:16:45Z")
Do tornadoes occur OUTSIDE of the United States?
I’ve never seen CNN report a tornado occurring in Europe, Africa, Australia, etc.
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### Author:  [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/2 "2008-06-10T16:20:38Z")
We get them in the UK, as this [BBC news item](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4725279.stm) shows.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/3 "2008-06-10T16:25:06Z")
[Wikipedia sez:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado)
> [@](#):
>
> Although tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica, most occur in the United States.[4] They also commonly occur in southern Canada, south-central and eastern Asia, east-central South America, Southern Africa, northwestern and southeast Europe, Italy, western and southeastern Australia, and New Zealand.
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/4 "2008-06-10T16:27:35Z")
I was puzzled about this too. The recent disaster in Myanmar was called a cyclone. I thought they were synonymous.
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### Author:  [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/5 "2008-06-10T16:28:48Z")
[QUOTE=Enola Straight]
Do tornadoes occur OUTSIDE of the United States?
[/QUOTE]
Yes. Here’s a [site](http://www.tornadoproject.com/) with information about tornados. If you click on All Tornadoes and then Worldwide tornado pages you get to an interactive world map. Many of its links are “under construction”, but it does, for example, provide a list of tornados in China.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/6 "2008-06-10T16:32:53Z")
[QUOTE=Sigmagirl]
I was puzzled about this too. The recent disaster in Myanmar was called a cyclone. I thought they were synonymous.
[/QUOTE]
I think “tornado” refers just to the hose-formed twisters. Cyclones cover a larger area.
AFAIK, “cyclone” is synonymous to “orcane” and “hurricane,” but not to “tornado.”
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/7 "2008-06-10T16:34:31Z")
[QUOTE=Schnitte]
I think “tornado” refers just to the hose-formed twisters. Cyclones cover a larger area.
AFAIK, “cyclone” is synonymous to “orcane” and “hurricane,” but not to “tornado.”
[/QUOTE]
“Cyclone” can be colloquially used to refer to a tornado, although the technical usage (and the usage I’m more familiar with) refers to a large-scale, rotating wind-and-pressure system of which hurricanes and typhoons are types of.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/8 "2008-06-10T17:22:22Z")
There are lots of tornadoes outside of North America. England has plenty for example as does Australia. However, tornados above F-1 (Out Of F-5) are very rare outside of the U.S. That means that the pee your pants and kiss your family goodbye tornadoes at F-3 and above don’t happen much in other countries so the smaller ones don’t cause much damage and aren’t that newsworthy.
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### Author:  [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/9 "2008-06-10T17:31:54Z")
Cecil has written on the subject.
[Do tornadoes only occur in North America?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_059.html)
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/10 "2008-06-10T17:51:12Z")
[QUOTE=Sigmagirl]
I was puzzled about this too. The recent disaster in Myanmar was called a cyclone. I thought they were synonymous.
[/QUOTE]
Tornado’s are the objects you see that extend down from clouds, Cyclones are the larger storms usually formed over water and are referred to differently by region:
[ul]“ **hurricane** ” (the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, or the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E) [/ul]
[ul]“ **typhoon** ” (the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline) [/ul]
[ul]“ **severe tropical cyclone** ” (the Southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or Southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E) [/ul]
[ul]“ **severe cyclonic storm** ” (the North Indian Ocean) [/ul]
[ul]“ **tropical cyclone** ” (the Southwest Indian Ocean)[/ul]
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/11 "2008-06-10T18:04:50Z")
Left out the [Link](http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/A1.html) to the above list.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/12 "2008-06-10T18:10:37Z")
A “cyclone” is simply a big and deep low-pressure system. (Compare “anticyclone”, an area of high-pressure.) The cyclone in Myanmar was similar to what is called a hurricane in the USA.
Hurricanes and tornadoes are totally unrelated, of course. Tornadoes are associated with convective storms, rather than large-scale circulation – and yes they do occur outside the USA. I have observed two small ones myself, in Cambodia and in the UK (the UK one was probably technically a “funnel cloud” as I don’t think it touched down).
In fact it is said that the UK gets more tornadoes per square mile than the USA does! But remember - (a) that is per square mile of the whole country, not per square mile of “Tornado Alley” in the USA; (b) the UK doesn’t tend to get very big twisters, although they can be big enough to cause significant damage. In recent years, Birmingham (see **Rayne Man** ’s link) and [London](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6217514.stm) have both suffered structural damage.
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### Author:  [@Mongo\_Ponton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mongo_Ponton)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/13 "2008-06-10T18:59:16Z")
Huh! I thought a cyclone was a tornado that turned the other way.
I may have just possibly misinformed some people. And with out even the slightest shred of doubt in my voice.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/14 "2008-06-10T19:33:25Z")
[QUOTE=Mongo Ponton]
Huh! I thought a cyclone was a tornado that turned the other way.
I may have just possibly misinformed some people. And with out even the slightest shred of doubt in my voice.
[/QUOTE]
Don’t feel too guilty about it. My mother and her family, who grew up in Midwestern farm country and went through their share of tornadoes, always called them “cyclones.”
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/15 "2008-06-10T20:12:55Z")
[QUOTE=Enola Straight]
Do tornadoes occur OUTSIDE of the United States?
[/QUOTE]
Heck, they occur on Mars. They’re informally called “dust devils.” 😉
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/16 "2008-06-10T22:25:04Z")
[QUOTE=Enola Straight]
Do tornadoes occur OUTSIDE of the United States?
[/QUOTE]
[There was one](http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23835720-2,00.html) in Perth, WA a couple of days ago.
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/17 "2008-06-10T22:35:26Z")
There was a bad “windstorm” in Versailles, France in 1999. It took 10,000 trees down.
> **[Versailles Trees](https://www.npr.org/2000/01/23/1069512/versailles-trees)**
>
> French tree surgeons are still at work cleaning up the wreckage left by two ferocious windstorms that tore through the country a month ago. At the palace of Versailles, the holes in the roof have been covered and windows replaced, but gardeners are...
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### Author:  [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/18 "2008-06-11T01:36:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Quote:
> Originally Posted by Enola Straight
> Do tornadoes occur OUTSIDE of the United States?
>
> Originally posted by **Cervaise**
> Heck, they occur on Mars. They’re informally called “dust devils.”
Nitpick. Tornadoes come down from the sky, dust devils go up from the ground, and they are not equivalents or even really opposites, though they may look superficially similar.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/19 "2008-06-11T01:44:38Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator]
[There was one](http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23835720-2,00.html) in Perth, WA a couple of days ago.
[/QUOTE]
Perth, Washington is certainly within the U.S. as is the rest of the state. Oops, you are talking about Western Australia. Can you change that abbreviation please? It gets confusing and a number of us have been tricked by it.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tornadoes-outside-usa/452459/20 "2008-06-11T01:47:28Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
a number of us have been tricked by it.
[/QUOTE]
I wasn’t. But I was going to make a smart-alecky post too. 😉😛
But when I looked up the ZIP code for Perth, Washington it wasn’t found. Couldn’t find it on MapQuest either. I thought I heard of a town in Washington called Perth, but I can’t find it.
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