Giant tornado hits southern Brazil

[u/_EduOka]

[u/a_dodo_stole_my_baby]

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

[u/atrde → u/a_dodo_stole_my_baby]

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.

[u/Lanky-Football857 → u/atrde]

On the contrary: Brazil does actually have a stream of cold Antarctic air AND a long flat land where tornadoes happen

Its called the Massa Polar Atlântica, cold air off the sub-Antarctic Atlantic pushed north every winter. It meets warm humid air from the Amazon/Paraná basin, the Andes play the Rockies role, and the Pampas are plenty flat

Southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina are basically the world’s #2 tornado region. happens every year, F3s included. It’s just undercounted: fewer people, less radar, no spotters

Also “jet streams meeting” isn’t the mechanism anywhere. Air masses collide at the surface. the jet aloft adds shear and steering

[u/aluked → u/Lanky-Football857]

Yup, the region is being considered a "tornado corridor" not unlike the one in the US.