There’s no hiding from a scientist with access to a satellite.
A man searching the Australian outback on Google Earth pointed researchers in the direction of a strange scar cutting through the dirt. It turns out the path was left behind by a previously undiscovered tornado.
Spying on tornadoes from space is a useful research method, especially in countries as vast as Australia and Canada.
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Australia sees several tornadoes every year
North America isn’t the only place on Earth that experiences tornadoes.
Twisters happen regularly on every continent except for Antarctica. Storms capable of spawning tornadoes are a common sight during the warm months in places like Bangladesh, South Africa, central Europe, and portions of Australia.
Australia Tornadoes 1950-2024
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Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has recorded more than 1,300 tornadoes throughout the country’s history, with about 900 tornadoes confirmed between 1950 and 2024. Most of the tornadoes were weak and short lived, but a few have gone on to cause significant damage and injury in populated areas.
Spotting a tornado from space
A study released in Nov. 2024 added one more tornado to the list. The Australian Broadcasting Company reported that a man hunting for caves on Google Earth spotted an odd formation in the ground in the southern part of the country. (You can see the spot for yourself here on Google Maps.)
The distinct mark amid the otherwise pristine desert dirt measured about 11 km long and several hundred metres wide, slicing a jagged path across a region known as the Nullarbor Plain, stretching through portions of the states of Western Australia and Southern Australia.
Scientists jumped on the case, analyzing high-resolution satellite imagery and weather data to confirm that the path was carved by a tornado that touched down on Nov. 17, 2022.
Newly Discovered Australia Tornado
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A zoomed-in view revealed cycloidal patterns within the path, a hallmark of the cyclonic winds spiralling around inside a tornado. “The erosional scar observed on the Nullarbor Plain shows significant characteristics consistent with a strong tornado event,” researchers said in their paper.
Using context clues like the length and shape of the path, the team estimated that the tornado was the equivalent strength of an EF-2 with maximum winds of 182-223 km/h.
Many of the world’s tornadoes go unreported
Previously unknown tornadoes are a hot topic for researchers here at home.
Canada places a distant second behind the United States in terms of annual average tornado counts. We record about 65 tornadoes in a typical year across Canada—though the true number is likely much higher.
A significant number of twisters that touch down across Canada’s vast landscape go unreported because they occur where hardly anyone is around to witness a storm or its aftermath.
The Northern Tornadoes Project exists to discover and document these tornadoes, sometimes using drones and satellite imagery to spot previously unknown scars in vegetation. Frequent reviews of high-resolution imagery can sometimes reveal dozens of newly discovered tornado tracks.
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