The storm that flooded St. Mark’s Square in Venice with a meter of water today also produced a tornado. A real Great Plains style tornado at that.
Here is an image from the Meteosat showing the storm. If the budget cuts do not get it, the U.S. will have an ultra modern weather satellite like this in a few years.
Seriously, this isn’t photoshopped? JFC. We really aren’t in Kansas anymore, are we?
I’ll be adding this one to my dossier on dodgy weather across the planet.
Here’s a couple recent tornadoes in areas not known for such a weather phenomenon:
Portugal: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20374171
Australia: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-20385272
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So far, the commonality is that they are all still in the mid-latitudes. When we start to get tornadoes on the Tropics or above the Arctic Circle I think we can declare the game over.
A minor clarification if I may Ray. Tornados are not uncommon in Australia
http://www.bom.gov.au/social/2011/07/tropical-cyclone-tornado-hurricane/
However they don’t often touchdown in populated areas. Most of our population lives on the coastal fringes
The one recently in Hobart Tasmania did:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2012/11/09/3629550.htm
Hi atoieno,
Thanks for the clarification. As the Tasmanian meteorologist said, twisters haven’t been spotted in Hobart before.
This is in keeping with the observation of a friend of mine in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, NYC, NY who I was in close touch with before and during the Hurricane Sandy incident. He related that they’ve experienced a number of small tornadoes in his urban neighborhood in the past 3 years which are unique in that no one can ever remember them occurring or especially not causing any damage in living memory. The climate truly is becoming more energized and destructive across the planet today.
Why just the other day I heard about Sandy Island in the Coral Sea. Last week it was a feature on Google Maps and certain other charts and this week we have testimonial from a scientist that the ocean is 1,400 meters deep where the Google people indicate a paradisical beach. I’m hoping to insert myself here as a real estate agent somehow…. That must have been one hell of a cyclone, and I doubt everyone has heard about it just yet.
Indeed the Hobart twister was “unpecedented”. To put it in context Hobart is at latitude 43 degrees south which in the northern hemisphere would put it in New Hampshire or Oregon or about 3 degrees north of Taranto Italy. Tasmania is surrounded by ocean so doesn’t get much of the airmass influence of continental Australia’s land mass but rather is subject to the energy of the Southern Ocean. Nothing between it and Antarctica but ocean.
Also in Aus this week:
Record november temps in south-east
117km/h Wind gusts in the west (90km/h in Perth)
Thanks, it was interesting to see the clockwise rotation of the storm off Perth. That fellow Coriolus was pretty clever to spin things up in different directions in different hemispheres.
I’ve a question for you. Do you think I’m getting a cracked version of what Oz is like from this pair? They don’t seem to notice the weather at all.
The strongest tornadoes (F4-F5) in Europe most likely
were (to the end of the twentieth century) in the years: 1645, 1756, 1851, 1930, 1965, 1970 – Italy, 1800, 1927, 1979, 1980 – Germany, 1810, 1950, – Great Britain, 1845, 1902 – France, 1931 – Poland, 1984 – Russia.
In the twenty-first century tornadoes in Europe were more frequent (often noted?) but it never as powerful (like the ones referred above).
… and:
Oct 16 2012
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/stories/deadly-tornadoes-linked-to-climate-change:
“The weather pattern Trans-Niño was in place during seven of the 10 worst years for tornadoes.”
“The Trans-Niño pattern was also in place during the record-breaking tornado season in the spring of 2011 , Lee said.”
“It’s dangerous to try to explain all the tornado outbreak events by the impact of climate,” he said.”
“Much of it is due to NORMAL atmospheric variability.”
Thanks for the interesting history lesson. It’s good to see that people didn’t have to worry about tornadoes during the Dark Ages, the 100 Years War or the Black Death in Europe. 🙂
Reblogged this on Climate Force.
Truly amazing. In grad school, I was laughed at (literally) for wanting to study extreme weather events–including tornadoes–in Europe. I knew we’d start to see more of them, and I wanted to be on the front lines. Their skepticism prevented me from be able to do it. I still regret it.
Nonetheless, the video is still amazing.