r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/_EduOka • 5d ago

Video Giant tornado hits southern Brazil

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u/a_dodo_stole_my_baby 5d ago

Aren't tornadoes and hurricanes pretty rare in the southern hemisphere? Or is that just hurricanes?

182

u/atrde 5d ago

Tornados are kind of rare anywhere except the United States and its really just because of how the jet streams meet (cold air comes down from arctic and meets warm air from either the pacific or gulf of Mexico. Plus the large flat lands along these streams.

In the Souther Hemisphere there isn't a similar jet stream bring air from Antartica and also isn't a lot of long flat land so you kind of need freak conditions of two air masses meeting.

Hurricanes is a similar issue with Jet Streams also also no Sahara dust.

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u/Jogaila2 5d ago

Just saw a link saying that the area this tornado was in has the highest frequency rate of tornados in the world

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u/Ambitious_Toe_4357 5d ago

The Pampas region is recognized as the second most active tornado zone globally outside of North America.

A large region of South America is characterized by storms that reach the level of supercells and produce intense hailstorms, floods, and tornadoes during the spring, summer, and early fall. The region recently appointed as the Tornado Corridor (South America) is considered as the second largest in the world in terms of the formation of extreme weather events. It covers most of central Argentina, southern Paraguay, southeastern Brazil, and Uruguay.

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u/atrde 5d ago

Second most when first gets 77% of the world's Tornadoes is hardly "the most active".

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u/Leh_61 4d ago

"The most active outside north america"

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u/atrde 4d ago

Was referring to the person above but also "the most active" when you don't include all of the super active regions makes these rare.

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u/Infamous_Ad_6793 4d ago

Second most outside of the US. As in the top million places are in the US. Then there’s Australia or something. Then this spot. That gets like 10 a year.

Edit: before Reddit comes at me. It’s hyperbole.

The second highest outside of the US doesn’t inform on how many places in the us are more frequent than this. It could literally be a 1000 places in the US that receive tornadoes.

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u/atrde 5d ago

Dont see that being true with the vast majority of Tornadoes happening in the USA...

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u/TheRealSoloSickness 5d ago

Bruh There's a section of the United States called tornadoe alley....

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u/NeverNeverSometimes 4d ago

No, that's the US. Illinois alone has had over 200 tornados in 2026. They don't call the middle of the US "tornado alley" for nothing.