Tropical And Subtropical Tornadoes
Large, violent tornadoes do not take place in the tropics and subtopics as often as they occur at temperate latitudes. This is mainly because the battles between warm and cold air masses are less common, and generally less intense, in the tropics and subtropics as compared with the temperate zones, especially over North America. The atmosphere is comparatively free of frontal cyclones at low latitudes, particularly in the summer.
Small and moderate tornadoes are common in the tropics and subtropics. In the extreme southern United States, especially in Florida, there are occasional tornadoes in conjunction with heavy thundershowers. In the winter, cold fronts from the continent move down the state, triggering thundershowers and squall lines, and some of these can spawn tornadoes. In the summer, cumulonimbus clouds build up almost every day as the sun shines practically straight down on the land and heats the moisture-laden air. In the center of the state, the resulting thunder-showers generate so much lightning that the region is sometimes called the lightning belt. Torrential rains, gale-force winds, and small hail are common in these thundershowers. Small tornadoes are sometimes observed. Australia lies almost entirely in the tropics and subtropics. Tornadoes are observed fairly often there, and they arise from the same causes as tornadoes in Florida. Much of Asia lies in the subtropics, and the wetter parts of that continent sometimes get tornadoes.
Tornadoes have been observed in the outer rain bands of tropical storms and hurricanes. In tropical hurricanes, the tornadoes are usually small, and do less damage than they do in the big Midwestern storms (although this fact is academic in the eyewall of an intense hurricane where the sustained wind blows at tornadic speed anyway). Near a hurricane, and particularly as it moves ashore or encounters cooler air at temperate latitudes, tornadoes present a greater hazard. They can strike virtually without warning and do considerable damage. Funnel clouds are most likely to develop in the forward semicircle of a tropical cyclone, especially the right front quadrant in the northern hemisphere or the left front quadrant in the southern hemisphere. If you are in a hurricane warning region, you should listen to local broadcast stations for tornado warnings.
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