All Tornadoes All The Time, Another Twister Post, This Time, Drama From Japan

Some of the damage from this month's tornado in Japan,
the strongest on record, or at least since 1961

 Tornadoes keep hitting places that aren't in tornado alley. 

Earlier this week I talked about a swarm of tornadoes in North Dakota and an odd one in rural, semi-desert Utah. 

But the real tornado news was in Japan of all places. On Friday, they had their worst  tornado on record. 

The Japanese tornado packed winds of up to 168 mph, killing one person, injuring 89 people and damaging at least 1,200 structures, mostly in the communities to Makinohara and Yoshida. This is roughly 110 miles southwest of Tokyo. 

The tornado, and a likely separate one in another town spun off from Tropical Storm Peipah, which passed near Japan Friday. In fact there might have been multiple tornado touchdowns in the region. 

The tropical storm itself forced the evacuation of 600,000 or so people due to the threat of flooding and landslides. At least 24 people were injured by the tropical storm, separate from the tornadoes. One time received three inches of rain within an hour from the system.  

Tornadoes happen occasionally in Japan, but most tend to be pretty weak.  The nation has had about 1,600 tornadoes since 1961.  By comparison, the United States averages roughly 1,000 twisters per year. 

AUSTRALIA, TOO

A couple of tornado hit Australia during severe storms and flooding on September 10.  The first twister was reported in Caragabal, New South Wales with another one nearby shortly afterwards.

The tornadoes were part of an odd springtime storm system that dumped the heaviest September rains since at least 1879 in Sydney. (I said springtime, as it is springtime Down Under). 

The torrential rains brought some drought relief to inland areas, but left much of Sydney under water after nearly five inches of rain dumped onto the city with a population of 5.6 million. Other cities in the region received six inches. 

The Sydney metro area had twice as much rain in one day as they usually do during the entire month of September.

Videos

Video compilation of the tornado in Japan. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.

Farmer turns into a tornado chaser recently in Caragabal, Australia. To view, click on this link, or if you see the image below, click on that:

 Scenes in Sydney, Australia via a newscast shows the city swamped beneath five inches of rain in a short amount of time. Once again, click here to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.