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I was wondering about this so I did some googling..
There are tornadoes around the world...but not as frequent as the United States..We came in first with an average of 1000 per year..Canada was 2nd with an average of 100 per year..They also stated there have been tornadoes in every state...
I just thought that was kinda of creepy...
Tornadoes give me the creeps..I cant even look at pictures of them..
Just thought I bring it out there..
The US has a long stretch of Plains that extend North to South, which allows for large cold and warm fronts to form and meet. Hence tornadoes being more common here than in many nations. Although I thought I heard of a tornado in Spain not that long ago and going by what I said you'd think maybe Kazakhstan or Russia would have major tornadoes, but I guess they don't so much. (Although Russia looks to have had a couple major ones) Maybe the Southern edge has to border an ocean as India and Bangladesh have apparently had some major tornado. In fact it looks like Bangladesh may have had the deadliest tornado.
I have to be honest, I cannot recall there ever having been a tornado in Europe (let alone in Belgium). There might have been some, but not that I'm aware of.
Climate-wise, Europe is a boring continent - and I am very happy for that
I've read somewhere that actually Britain has more reported tornadoes per square mile than any other country (perhaps because it's very densely populated so few would go unnoticed?) but the scale of them is much less than in the US and deaths are few and far between. I've never seen one though and don't know anyone who has.
In the Southern Cone (Southern part of South America), more exactly in the plains stretching from some parts of Southern Brazil to the Pampas in Argentina (provinces of Corrientes, Chaco, Córdoba, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, and La Pampa), tornadoes often occur (outside of the US, it's one of the most-prone to tornadoes). In the plains of Australia there are tornadoes too, I think.
There was a tornado in Tomar, Portugal last year. There is one every once in a while. But I think the difference is that European homes are built much more robustly. Usually only tool sheds and green houses get blown away, and maybe tiles from roofs that have not been maintained properly, but houses as such don't get blown away like in the US, where oftentimes the only thing that remains is the tubing in the former bathroom
There was a tornado in Tomar, Portugal last year. There is one every once in a while. But I think the difference is that European homes are built much more robustly. Usually only tool sheds and green houses get blown away, and maybe tiles from roofs that have not been maintained properly, but houses as such don't get blown away like in the US, where oftentimes the only thing that remains is the tubing in the former bathroom
That's insteresting. Sometimes I wonder why many houses are still built of wood in the USA, even though many places there are prone to natural distasters like tornadoes.
Here in Argentina, even though we are less developed, houses resist tornados a bit more, just because they are mostly built of concrete, bricks, but very rarely of wood (at least in the areas that are prone to tornadoes). Sure, the poorer homes don't resist so easily, but most do.
There was a tornado in Tomar, Portugal last year. There is one every once in a while. But I think the difference is that European homes are built much more robustly. Usually only tool sheds and green houses get blown away, and maybe tiles from roofs that have not been maintained properly, but houses as such don't get blown away like in the US, where oftentimes the only thing that remains is the tubing in the former bathroom
Though it may be true that European homes are built a bit stronger than most American homes, it's not really a good comparison when looking at tornado damage. Many of the tornadoes we get in the Great Plains of the US are much more powerful than those you'd see in Europe or other places. The tornadoes that we have seen so far this year such as last night near El Reno, Oklahoma, or last week in Joplin, Missouri or even last month in Tuscaloosa, Alabama were EF4 or even EF5 tornadoes- those are so incredibly strong that no man made structure can survive a direct hit short of maybe a nuclear reactor, dam, or some other extremely thick concrete structures. Those kinds of tornadoes actually scour the ground- wiping it clean of anything in its path- whether it be a wood structure, steel structure, or even concrete structure. Sometimes even wiping concrete or blacktop roads off of the ground! A European house just like an American house would not survive that kind of tornado.
Tornado Alley in the US does not just get the biggest number of tornadoes in the world, it also gets the biggest number of violent tornadoes in the world.
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