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Significant Tornado Events - Global Edition

TH2002

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As I have been trying to find more international tornado videos recently I have begun to take more of an interest in South American tornadoes, especially those in Brazil.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it certainly seems that the Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul have some serious tornadic activity (possibly the highest in Brazil?) including frequent intense to violent tornadoes.
I found this tornado that hit Criciúma SC in January of 2005. Nothing particularly intense, but may have at least been stronger than F0 as the title of the second video suggests.


 

gregassagraf

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As I have been trying to find more international tornado videos recently I have begun to take more of an interest in South American tornadoes, especially those in Brazil.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it certainly seems that the Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul have some serious tornadic activity (possibly the highest in Brazil?) including frequent intense to violent tornadoes.
I found this tornado that hit Criciúma SC in January of 2005. Nothing particularly intense, but may have at least been stronger than F0 as the title of the second video suggests.
Well.. I would say that the area around the rivers that constitute the La Plata estuary (Paraná river, Uruguay river and Salado river) are most prone to tornadic activity.


Pasillo-de-los-tornados.jpg

So, Most of Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, Santa Fé, Cordoba, Corrientes and Missiones provinces in Argentina; and Western sections of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana states in Brazil are the most prone for strong to violent tornadoes in South America.

Some great examples of South American tornadoes:










A great deal of the tornadoes in this region of the world goes undocumented, specially because the lack of institutional support for tornado research, but also the high concentration of the population in small urban areas, the large size of open areas without public road access (due to large estates).
 

gregassagraf

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Well.. I would say that the area around the rivers that constitute the La Plata estuary (Paraná river, Uruguay river and Salado river) are most prone to tornadic activity.


View attachment 12448

So, Most of Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, Santa Fé, Cordoba, Corrientes and Missiones provinces in Argentina; and Western sections of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Parana states in Brazil are the most prone for strong to violent tornadoes in South America.

A great deal of the tornadoes in this region of the world goes undocumented, specially because the lack of institutional support for tornado research, but also the high concentration of the population in small urban areas, the large size of open areas without public road access (due to large estates).

In addition to this post I decided to annotate somethings I've noticed from the South American tornado setup. Although I'm no meteorologist, since 2021, I've been observing the WX community and learning a lot about weather, and tornadoes. A couple of things are apparent when comparing Great Plains & Dixie Alley setups to what is observed in the Pampas and the High Lands of central and northern Argentina, south Brazil and Uruguay and Paraguay:
Firstly, it seems that when comparing to the US tornado alley, the events in South America are much more localized, and more CAPE driven than in North America. Due to not being under the influence of such powerful jet stream as North America, usually we don't have those really long track tornadoes and supercells observed in the central plains. This doesn't mean that powerful tornadoes do not happen in this region in the world: some of the most impressive tornado damage observed outside North America have been observed around the Pampas.



 

TH2002

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I don't know what it is with Ukraine and gorgeous landspout tornadoes, but here are just a few of the many I've found:



 

TH2002

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This waterspout-turned-tornado that occurred in Berdiuzh'e, Russia in 2011 is one of the most fascinating and unusual looking tornadoes I have ever seen.






What appears to be a "snowspout" documented near Surgut:
 

buckeye05

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This waterspout-turned-tornado that occurred in Berdiuzh'e, Russia in 2011 is one of the most fascinating and unusual looking tornadoes I have ever seen.






What appears to be a "snowspout" documented near Surgut:

That last one is particularly interesting. Snowspouts are one of the most rare and fascinating forms of tornado-type weather phenomenon. It’s not too common to find quality video of them like that. Great find.
 

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pohnpei

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All of this footage is remarkable. I had no idea the Kaiyan tornado was so well-documented.
It's not an exaggeration to say I've seen at least hundreds of very upclose footages and dozens of inside tornado footages in Kaiyuan. It's just too many for us to upload all of them. I think It just caught up with the time when tiktok took off combined with literally no awareness of danger of tornados of people there, then contributing to so many crazy footages. I even watched a video showed a women hold her little baby in her arm standing right in front of windows when tornado penetrated her house. She continued to shot video with such calm intonation to placate her baby "Don't be afraid".
 

TH2002

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I have been trying to find more tornado footage from China, and there are some pre-2015 tornadoes that have caught my interest. However, unlike tornadoes from 2019-present (such as Kaiyuan 2019 and the 2021 outbreaks) where there is almost always plenty of footage and documentation available, it seems that many of these earlier tornadoes are extremely poorly documented, at least in English. The language barrier is definitely a problem for me and probably anyone else who doesn't speak Chinese.

Anyways, here are some events. I am hoping @pohnpei and @eric11 can help shed some light on some of these, and perhaps other events that I didn't mention here. I don't think footage exists for every one of them, especially ones that happened at night, but even if no footage exists hopefully at least more damage photos and survey information can be found.

July 3, 2007 - Jiangsu Province
Tornado killed 14 and injured 146-151 others (sources conflict). I was able to find some damage photos.
100927_1183597815406.jpg

100927_1183597847137.jpg


August 18, 2007 - Zhejiang
11 or 12 people were killed (again, sources conflict) and 62 others were injured. One source mentions that 156 houses were destroyed along a path 8 kilometers (4.9 miles) long and 800 meters (roughly 1/2 mile) wide. It was probably spawned in the outer bands of Typhoon Sepat. I was able to find some damage photos.
403086.jpg

403085.jpg


May 6, 2010 - Chongqing
Wikipedia lists 39 fatalities and 200 injuries, though this may be dubious and another source lists 29 fatalities and 190 injuries in Chongqing, and six fatalities from landslides. I was only able to find a single damage photo.
201056144647179734_5.jpeg


May 2, 2011 - Guangdong
One house "collapsed" and 53 others had their roofs ripped off. The tornado happened at about 5 am in the morning, and many people woke up to see the roofs of their homes being ripped off by the tornado. There were no casualties. I could not find any damage photos or footage.

March 21, 2013 - Guangdong
24 fatalities and 272 injuries (some sources list as little as 148 injuries), though that may have been the total from the overall storm system. I did find one damage photo of a factory in Shatian township, Dongguan, and there's also reportedly some footage of the tornado but I was not able to find it.
180373cf843212b58a5f08.jpg
 

pohnpei

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I have been trying to find more tornado footage from China, and there are some pre-2015 tornadoes that have caught my interest. However, unlike tornadoes from 2019-present (such as Kaiyuan 2019 and the 2021 outbreaks) where there is almost always plenty of footage and documentation available, it seems that many of these earlier tornadoes are extremely poorly documented, at least in English. The language barrier is definitely a problem for me and probably anyone else who doesn't speak Chinese.

Anyways, here are some events. I am hoping @pohnpei and @eric11 can help shed some light on some of these, and perhaps other events that I didn't mention here. I don't think footage exists for every one of them, especially ones that happened at night, but even if no footage exists hopefully at least more damage photos and survey information can be found.

July 3, 2007 - Jiangsu Province
Tornado killed 14 and injured 146-151 others (sources conflict). I was able to find some damage photos.
100927_1183597815406.jpg

100927_1183597847137.jpg


August 18, 2007 - Zhejiang
11 or 12 people were killed (again, sources conflict) and 62 others were injured. One source mentions that 156 houses were destroyed along a path 8 kilometers (4.9 miles) long and 800 meters (roughly 1/2 mile) wide. It was probably spawned in the outer bands of Typhoon Sepat. I was able to find some damage photos.
403086.jpg

403085.jpg


May 6, 2010 - Chongqing
Wikipedia lists 39 fatalities and 200 injuries, though this may be dubious and another source lists 29 fatalities and 190 injuries in Chongqing, and six fatalities from landslides. I was only able to find a single damage photo.
201056144647179734_5.jpeg


May 2, 2011 - Guangdong
One house "collapsed" and 53 others had their roofs ripped off. The tornado happened at about 5 am in the morning, and many people woke up to see the roofs of their homes being ripped off by the tornado. There were no casualties. I could not find any damage photos or footage.

March 21, 2013 - Guangdong
24 fatalities and 272 injuries (some sources list as little as 148 injuries), though that may have been the total from the overall storm system. I did find one damage photo of a factory in Shatian township, Dongguan, and there's also reportedly some footage of the tornado but I was not able to find it.
180373cf843212b58a5f08.jpg
The one in Chongqing was very likely straight-line wind event.
 
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