How to survive tornadoes – 04/16/2023 – Environment

There are tornadoes on every continent except Antarctica.

The United States is the champion country in the occurrence of this phenomenon, defined by the National Weather Service (NWS, its acronym in English) as “a column of air that rotates violently and touches the ground, usually linked to a storm at the base”.

About 1,200 tornadoes strike the US annually.

While Brazil doesn’t come close to that number, it isn’t free from tornadoes either. Since June 2018, there have been 96 records in the country, according to a survey by Prevots, a project by meteorologists to improve documentation and research on severe storms.

It is important to note that, on the one hand, the survey does not include all tornadoes that occurred in Brazil because not all of them underwent a technical damage analysis. On the other hand, a tornado can damage more than one city—and each city is counted as a record in the Severe Weather Record Platform (PRETS) database.

Most occurrences in Brazil caused damage such as roofing, but the most intense — those that destroy resistant buildings and launch objects at high speed — happened in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, according to meteorologist Bruno Zanetti, who is part of Prevots .

Zanetti cites as examples of intense tornadoes in Brazil the one that hit the municipalities of Belmonte (SC) and Descanso (SC) in 2020 and another that affected the region of Coxilha (RS) in 2018. Dozens of buildings collapsed and families were affected in these occasions — and, in the 2018 incident in Rio Grande do Sul, two people died as a result of the collapse of their homes.

If there is a tornado near you, whether in Brazil or abroad, it is important to know what to do to protect yourself.

The best place to be is in a sturdy building, most likely to withstand winds that can reach 500 km/h.

It is also important to pay attention to alerts from official bodies.

And do everything to not be outdoors during a tornado.

The step by step indicated by the NWS is:

In between: go inside somewhere, looking for the most internal room possible and away from doors and windows;

Come down: go to the lowest floor. The underground rooms are the best;

cover up: use whatever you can to protect yourself from debris: clothes, helmets, pillows, blankets, mattresses…

Is staying in the car safe?

Keli Cain of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security told the BBC that being in a car is not much safer than being in an open field or parking lot.

People are often injured trying to drive away from storms.

Such storms can generate softball-sized hailstones capable of shattering a windshield.

If you are unlucky enough to be outside during a tornado, try to get inside any type of structure.

Go down as far as possible — even if it’s into a ditch or culvert.

what not to do

Jacob Hernandez is an amateur storm chaser who grew up in Moore, Oklahoma—twice hit by an EF5 tornado, the largest type of tornado.

In March 2023, he posted a video of his accidental encounter with an EF4 tornado he had been tracking in Iowa.

Hernandez claims this is a perfect example of “what not to do” if you’re near a tornado. He says he is “embarrassed” for coming so close to dying.

The worst is getting stuck in the path of a tornado without an escape route.

“If it looks like (the tornado) isn’t moving and it’s getting bigger, it’s heading towards you,” he says.

Hernandez adds that anyone in an area where tornadoes are forecast should know how to get to safety within 60 seconds.

“If you’re face to face with a violent tornado, I guarantee you it’s not going to be the tornado that retreats.”

This text was originally published here.