Tornadoes in China

Worldwide Tornadoes--China

Tornadoes are most frequent in the US, but occasionally occur in other countries. Until just recently, political barriers have prevented the free-flow of accurate disaster information from China. In the past decade, there seems to have been about one reported multiple-death killer tornado a year there. Some, perhaps most, seem to be typhoon spawned tornadoes. Listed below are storms that are believed to be tornadic.You can read more about worldwide tornadoes in the book "The Tornado, Nature's Ultimate Windstorm" by Tom Grazulis. If you know of a tornado that occurred in this or another country and can provide documentation for it, we will be happy to add it to this page. If you have a photo of this tornado, we would like to post it here. If you know of another page that has information on the tornadoes in this country, we would be happy to add a link to it.

April 11, 1878
This is a report that we have not been yet able to substantiate, but it is reported that a 200 yard wide tornado hit the city of Canton and killed 10,000 people. It may very well have been a flash flood report that was referred to as a waterspout. Flash floods were often called waterspouts in the 19th century and then further translated to the word tornado. It struck the settlement of Stameen, and passed northeast over Canton, where it caused immense damage to a portion of the city. Considerable damage was also done and numbers of lives were also lost in the villages of Pah Hin Hock and Pah Hock Tang, about 2-3 miles north of Canton, and at Fatshan.

July 31, 1987 (probably)
A tornado swept through Alberta's sister province in northeast China, killing 16 people, seriously injuring 442 and leaving 13 others missing. The tornado, accompanied by heavy rain, struck 14 towns in Hailun, Baiquan and Nehe counties in Heilongjiang Province. Destroyed in the storms were 1,800 houses and 40 km of power and communication lines.

March 25, 1993 (this report on 28th)
A tornado and hailstorm in rural southeast China have killed 19 people, injured 130 and left at least 10 missing. The storm on Thursday struck Guixi county in Jiangxi Province in the late afternoon as farmers were walking home from their fields.

April 21, 1993
At least eight people were killed and more than 200 injured by a tornado and hailstorm that swept through Yangchun county in Guangdong Province on the weekend. More than 16,310 houses were flattened.

June 28, 1993
Eight people were killed in a tornado that struck north of Shanghai.

August 5, 1993
At least five people were killed and more than 60 others injured in a series of rain and hail storms and a tornado that struck the eastern Chinese coastal province of Jiangsu.

June 9, 1994 (this report on 10th)
Typhoon Ross went ashore in Guangdong Province of southern China, flooding about 1300 villages and drowning more than 200 people while damaging 320,000 homes. The typhoon spawned a tornado that killed 13 people and injured about 100 in the city of Nanhai.

Feburary 15, 1995 (report on 16th)
Four people were killed and hundreds of others injured as a serious tornado and hailstorm hit southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

19 April, 1995 42 words (report on 21th)
Deadly tornado. a freak tornado killed at least seven people and destroyed 342 buildings in Zhongshan, Guangdong, Wen Wei Po newspaper said yesterday. Early reports put the death toll at seven after a tornado hit the Zhongshan townships of Sanjiao and Minzhong on Wednesday.

August 11, 1995
Four people were killed when a tornado ripped through Shanghai, toppling a construction crane and tearing the roof off a factory.

August 24, 1995 163 words (report on 26)
A tornado killed seven children and injured 70 when it hit a school in Jiangsu Province.

April 19, 1996 (report on 20th)
More than 500 houses were damaged and 800 people affected by a tornado that swept through the municipality of Zhuhai in Guangdong Province.

July 17, 1996(report on 17th)
A tornado devastated six towns in eastern Jiangsu Province, killing 25 people and injuring more than 600. The tornado struck the northern part of the province, with most casualties occurring in rural areas where many poorly built houses collapsed in the winds.

March 23, 1999(report on 23rd)
A tornado tore through a harbour in Maoming, Guangdong Province, sinking 71 fishing boats and damaging 164 others. No deaths were reported.

April 26, 1999(report on 26)
At least five people were killed and dozens injured when a tornado struck Dongting Lake in China's central province of Hunan.

May 16, 1999(report on 16th)
Tornadoes tracked through villages in southwestern Guangdong Province, killing 13 people, injuring 51 and destroying or damaging hundreds of houses.

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