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Good Question: Are Violent Tornadoes Found Outside The U.S.?

(CBS 5) -- Recently, tornadoes carved a path of destruction through the South, with Alabama hit especially hard. In this Good Question: Are violent tornadoes found anywhere else on Earth?

ANSWER: According to San Francisco State University meteorologist John Monteverdi, there are just a few places on the Earth capable of generating the kind of killer tornados that recently happened in the south. One of those areas is near the Bay of Bengal, southeast of the Himalayas.

Warm, moist air and a cold jet stream is the recipe for creating massive tornadoes, and those conditions are found in the "tornado alley" area of the U.S.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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