Do tornados occur anywhere else other than the United States?
551363
Even though tornadoes are most common in the U.S., they do occur in other places. Other popular tornado hangouts are the Netherlands, UK,  Bangladesh, India, Argentina, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Estonia, Uruguay. They have also been known to occur in Russia, France, Spain, Japan, and Brazil.
427523
Theoretically they could if it snaows while the ground is warm and conditions right.\n\nTornadoes can happen anywhere as long as the ground is warm and the air is cold, they are not restricted to parts of the world, they are merely more likely to form there.\n\nHowever if it were to snow then the ground would quickly become cold and a tornado would cease from forming, thereby it would last only a fe seconds, if at all.\n\nI have never heard of one and would be interested if there were one.\n\nEDIT: since a tronado can form just before it rains, then i would not be suprised if one can form just before it snows.
401694
Any of the states in the region of the country referred to as Tornado Alley.\n\nThe site of most tornadoes a year aren't actually in Kansas, but in Texas and, in some years, Oklahoma...
1078328
They exist, but you'll probably have to look in the Southwestern United States to find them. They're not exactly common anywhere else.
1102714
yes.\n\nAt least the great majority of tornadoes rotate counterclockwise \n(as do all low-pressure systems) in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in \nthe southern hemisphere, for the reason (coriolis force) given by Eric \nPeterson in response #1.  But occasionally, it would seem, northern hemisphere \ntornadoes do rotate clockwise:  S. Flora's book "Tornadoes of the United \nStates" cites an 1890 article in the American Meteorological Journal.  Its \nauthor, a J.P. Finley, states that, of 550 American tornadoes he studied, 29 \nwere deemed to have rotated clockwise.  I have not been able to find any \n"modern" study of this question.  But I believe it could be true. The region \nof swirling air that contracts to become the tornado is not itself large \nenough in extent to have its rotation dictated by the coriolis force; rather, \nit "inherits" this tendency from the great masses of air whose movement sets \nthe stage for the storms and any associated tornadoes. If the study cited is \ncorrect and representative, on occasion the direction of rotation is set by \nsome other factor, perhaps the topography in the area where the tornado forms, \nfor example.
117968
There is no official tornado season because they can occur at any time. Unofficially, though, the months of spring and early summer usually have the highest rate of tornado activity, particularly in the Midwest.
515568
Yep it all depends on if the  warm air current is rising up to meet a cold one that is coming down and they clash enough to make a vortex. Tornado's can happen pretty much anywhere.
1184038
The most number of thunderstorms occur in the tropics, or the zone either side of the equator from about 23.5 degrees north latitude to 23.5 degrees south latitude. \nAs far as the most powerful storms are concerned, the ones with the greatest rainfall tend to be in the tropics, because of so much moisture available. However, thunderstorms that cause severe weather, including damaging winds, hail, and even tornadoes, are generally in the middle latitudes. The middle portions of North America, i.e., the Plains states of the U.S., have the greatest number of tornadoes than any other place in the world.
143148
The US gets something like 90+% of all the world's hurricanes because the warm air of the Gulf Coast can interact directly with the cold air coming down from the arctic, with no mountains in between. If you look at a map, that is the only place that is true on earth. This causes tornadoes. \n\nIt rains and snows near mountains and islands in the ocean. This is called an orographic effect. Areas behind the mountains are often very dry. This creates deserts in the rain shadows of these mountains. \n\nAntarctica is a high plateau and a large continent. The distance from the ocean and the altitude make it the coldest place on earth. \n\nOften cold air comes over the Great lakes, and creates fingers of snow as the air moves east. This is called Lake Effect snow. \n\nChinooks and Santa Anas are examples of foehn winds, caused by air travelling down the lee side of a mountain and being compressed under a temperature inversion and warming up. These warm dry winds are also called katabatic winds.\n\nThe warm Gulf stream and warm Kurishiro currents on the western side of the Atlantic and Pacific respectively keep the land nearby warmer than it would be otherwise. These currents are western boundary currents of ocean gyres produced by the coriolis force in the Atlantic and Pacific ocean basins. \n\nTropical cyclones are also produced by coriolis force, and pick up energy from warm ocean waters that result from the world ocean current system. Of course, the topography of the oceans produces this world ocean current system, so topography is responsible for the tropical cyclones, including the hurricanes we are confronted with in the US.
395422
I don't know.. it's weird though.  I lived in the midwest for years and we always had tornado warnings starting in the evening.  The Wautoma, Wisconsin tornado was in the evening.  Maybe it has something to do with the cooling air on land.
362562
Well, to avoid tsunamis and typhoons/hurricanes you need to be in a landlocked country. To avoid tornadoes you need something fairly mountainous. As for earthquakes, you need to avoid fault lines. I would guess somewhere in Germany or thereabouts.
969063
one myth could be that tornadoes occur when a small asteroid hits the atmosphere with enough rotational velocity to twist the air\n\nor that they happen when god sneezes\n\nor that there is always at least one tornado on earth at any given time
439545
No, they can occur just about anywhere. They are most common in the seismically active areas, like tectonic lines, but they can also happen from other reason, like in the mountains if a piece of the rock would crumble and fall down, or if a meteor falls on earth, or if there is an underground cave or a river and it collapses... there are many reasons.
1118366
I've never been to England, so i don't know if that happened there. but one thing is sure, fish do sometimes fall from the sky. this is just a very natural phenomenon, and happens only when a tornado materialize over a body of water. \n\nWe all know that tornadoes or "twisters" are very power full forces that can destroy houses and properties through their suction vortexes. Now just imagine a normal strength or even just a weak\ntornado touches the surface of water where many fishes congregate. the power full suction force of the tornado will suck the water (and with it the school of fish) up to the sky. now if this tornado continues on land and dissipates after wards, those fish that it sucked on the water will be released and fall down. that is then that you will see "fish falling from the sky."
189495
I know Canada gets hit by tornadoes and I'm sure some countries in Europe do also.
288310
Throughout the Western Hemisphere from the tip of South America to Canada. There are many in the western states of the US, and an isolated "subspecies" in Florida.
256868
Not at all true. Not only can they move west, there are sometimes tornadoes which don't spin counterclockwise.