what country experiences the most tornadoes? Flashcards
Is America the only country that gets hit by tornadoes?
Considering the number of times (more than 1000) the USA gets hit by tornadoes, one can be forgiven to think that tornado is the sole property of the United States of America.
But that’s not the case.
Apart from America, there are many other countries with most tornadoes which have the misfortune of getting hit frequently.
But news of tornadoes in other parts of the world doesn’t get as much coverage as it gets in America.
In fact, most of the countries don’t even bother to record most of their tornadoes.
So <a>what country experiences the most tornadoes?</a>
- New Zealand
According to the New Zealand mat office, about 20 waterspouts and tornadoes occur in the country per year.
Most of the tornadoes occur in the north island of the country.
The west coast of Taranaki is another hotspot for tornadoes as it had been struck 12 times from 1961-1975.
However, most of them are weak waterspouts and are not powerful enough to cause substantial damage to lives and property.
Nonetheless, fatalities have happened albeit rarely and the most recent cases of tornadoes associated with fatalities are Hobsonville in 2012 (3 deaths) and Albany in 2011 (1 death).
- Australia
There’s a common misconception that Australia does not have many tornadoes, which is certainly not true.
For, it has about 16 tornadoes per year even after excluding the waterspouts which are pretty common.
The south-western coast of Western Australia is one of the hotspots for tornadoes.
Lennox Head village of New South Wales is one of the most vulnerable places to tornadoes in Australia.
Australia experienced its deadliest tornado in 1971, when it struck Kin Kin, a town which is situated near south-east Queensland and killed 3 people.
- England
When we think of think of England, the image that comes to our mind is one of a pleasant and green land and not one of the tornadoes.
However, tornadoes are pretty common in this country.
In fact, it has the misfortune of having more tornadoes per mile than any other countries including the USA.
Reading and London endure the majority of the twisters as the River Thames is London’s own tornado valley.
On average there are about 34 tornado sightings each year in England. That means 2.2 tornadoes per 10,000km sq.
- Japan
Tornadoes, which are called “tatsumaki” in Japan, weren’t pretty common in the earlier times.
However, lately, the number of tornadoes has been increasing gradually.
Japan has an average of around 20 tornadoes per year.
The country experienced its most destructive tornado in the year of 2006 when a twister struck at Seroma on Hokkaido Island and killed 9 people.
- India
The delta region has been known to be hit by some of the strongest and violent tornadoes over the past 200 years.
The country witnessed the devastating fury of a tornado first-hand in 1963.
More than 100 people were killed by the tornado in northwest Assam on April 19, 1963. Apart from killing tens of people, it also caused more than 3700 families to go homeless.
Moreover, around 20 people lost their lives in a recent tornado which hit the southern part of India in 2009.
