JanuaryThe first tornadoes occurred on January 7th, 2005 in Mississippi and Alabama. Small tornadoes touched down in California four days in a row, from January 8th to January 11th. Killer tornadoes occurred on the 12th and 13th.
Tornado Hits Northern Europe This Time
By Cihan News Agency, Frankfurt
Published: Monday, January 10, 2005
zaman.com
At least 10 people died in a severe tornado that blew through Sweden, Denmark and Northern Germany, on January 9.
In Sweden, falling trees and debris killed six people, while in Denmark, four people died.
Two people on a boat in Neumünster, Germany, are also lost.
The tornado had wind speeds of 150 km/h, scalped houses of their roofs, paralyzed traffic, and deprived half a million houses of power.
Unable to Forecast Them, Brazil Gets Hit by Tornadoes
They are rare in Brazil, but they do happen. Ask someone from Criciúma. The town of Criciúma (population: 180,000) in the southern state of Santa Catarina, was hit by not one, but two tornadoes on Monday afternoon.
The first struck at about 3:00 pm, in the middle of the city during a rainstorm. The second touched down around an hour later at a point some four kilometers from where the first one hit the ground.
The result was two dead, numerous people injured and some 250 left with damaged homes. The tornadoes, with winds of around 100 kilometers per hour, knocked down trees and ripped off roofs.
Ministry of Agriculture meteorologist, Mamedes Luiz Melo, says it is possible that the area may be hit by more tornadoes.
It seems that Brazil does have tornadoes, but they are usually small and don't make the news.
"This is something that can happen throughout the southern region of Brazil," he says.
Melo also reports that "Brazil does not have equipment for detecting or tracking tornadoes. What we can do is forecast the possibility of a tornado within a one to two hour time frame," said the meteorologist.
Tornadoes strike southern Brazil
Wednesday, January 5, 2005 (Criciuma):
Two tornadoes that struck southern Brazil have forced hundreds of people from their homes, civil defence officials said on Tuesday.
The tornadoes destroyed three houses in Santa Catarina state on Monday, severely damaged 27 and ripped the roof shingles off some 100 houses. At least one death was linked to the twisters. The first tornado touched down on Monday afternoon about six kilometres (four miles) outside the centre of Criciuma, civil defence officials said.
A second twister, with winds topping 115 kilometres-per-hour (71 mph), struck an hour later even closer to the centre of Criciuma - a city 900 kilometres (560 miles) southwest of Rio de Janeiro.
Amateur video showed the moment the second tornado touched down.
One elderly man died of a heart attack, which may have been related to stress caused by the high winds. About five people suffered minor injuries.
Each tornado lasted about seven minutes. Clovis Correia, a meteorologist with the state's weather service, said that on a scale of one to five, the two tornadoes registered at level one, the weakest.
Tornadoes are rare in the region and throughout Brazil, although a weak tornado struck the same region last month.
Santa Catarina was also struck by rare subtropical cycle in March that many meteorologists said was a hurricane - a controversial classification because it has long been believed that hurricanes didn't occur in the southern Atlantic. (AP)
