Severe Weather in Madagascar

TORNADOS
Tornados form in different steps. First a rotating body of air starts do the differences in wind speed at different altitudes, or better known as vertical wind sheer. Then the vertical updraft of a thunderstorm causes that horizontal rotating body of air to turn into a vertical rotating body of air giving you what is called a mesocyclone. This mesocyclone is now located in the center of the thunderstorm cloud and the tornado will come from the bottom of the mesocyclone through the bottom of the cloud. Usually tornados move from southwest to northeast or west to east in the United States because thats the general direction in which t he wind blows through the states. Around 1253 tornadoes occur in the us per year.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information/extreme-events/us-tornado-climatology
Usually no tornadoes occur in Madagascar due to the fact that the temperature is consistent so there are pretty much never any warm and cold fronts colliding and mixing together.
http://www.worldtravelguide.net/madagascar/weather-climate-geography



As you can see, Madagascar only has some risk in suffering from tornadoes just because severe storms do occur on the island so it technically wouldn't be 100% impossible but just highly unlikely.
Over time tornadoes have been noticeably increasing. I think this had a big reliance on the fact that technology over the last 50 years has improved greatly so when a tornado in the middle of nowhere happens, it is know about due to the instruments that meteorologists use.

HURRICANES
In order for hurricanes to form they need warm ocean temperatures that extend deep into the ocean and corolis (so above 5° N/S). Madagascar does indeed have these things so tropical storms and hurricanes do occur often. Madagascar is located at around 20° S so there is plenty of warm and plenty of corolis. The region near the Indian Ocean and Australia (where Madagascar is near) these Hurricanes are called Cyclones. Off the coast of China and Indonesia they are called Typhoons. The ones in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Ocean are the ones we call Hurricanes. I have included a photo below where you can clearly see all three of these regions. In the United States, as you can also see from the photo below, hurricanes follow a "C" shape pattern. They go W then NW then N then start curving NE. This is due to the fact that the trade winds that blow to the W turn in to the westerlies that blow toward the east around that 30° mark which is where they start to curve. Hurricanes, or Cyclones, do occur in Madagascar. Usually around 11-12 named tropical storms hit the US per year.
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/E11.html
Think of that then compare that to the 4 or 5 that cross over Madagascar every year. Not as many but you have to remember that the size of Madagascar is not that large. It is also unfortunate that these cyclones have been noticeable getting more intense over the years, parts of the global climate change. If you would like to learn more about Madagascar, it's climate change, and the hurricanes that affect the island the link below leads to a very informative powerpoint.
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTUNITFESSD/Resources/1633787-1322594494226/Mamy-Razakanaivo.pdf

Other Sources Used:

http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7u.html

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/archive.html?year=2013&month=05

"Daily Weather In Madagascar

By using the www.wunderground.com website I gathered the following information on Madagascar's weather......

For the following three days I found out the days high temperature, low temperature, precipitation, average pressure, and average wind speed of Madagascar's capitol, Antananarivo. On Tuesday, November 4 the high temperature is expected to be 81 and a low temperature of 60. There is a 3% chance of precipitation around noon and 11% chance around 3pm. On Wednesday, November 5, the high is expected to be 83 and the low to be 60. There is a 0% chance of precipitation both at noon and 3pm. On Thursday, November 6, the high temperature is expected to be 83 and the low to be 61. There is a 9% chance of precipitation at noon but by 3pm there is a 64% chance of rain. The average pressure over the three days is around 30.6 and decreases just a slight amount over the few days. The average wind speed over the days is around 6.4mph and also decreases as the few days pass on.



The map below is also from wunderground.com

 As you can see there a couple large cloud clusters to the north of and the east of Antananarivo. They are mostly low clouds (grey and blue) but a large yellow and orange cloud cluster means it is higher than the rest of the clouds in the image. Antananarivo is marked by the red marker. At the time that the screen shot was taken it was 74°F. No kinds of precipitation are shown so it must not currently be raining anywhere in Madagascar. There is a national forest as you can see to the east of the city and a vast area of wide open forests  and park areas to the west. Down the center you can see all the texture looking marks that signify the mountains that are on the island.


The following information was gotten from www.intellicast.com.


The map below is of southern Africa which includes Madagascar on the right side of the image. There looks to be a low front located just on the west side of the island. It is hard to tell because of the small map in the corner but it looks to be around 1016mb. There is also three different fronts in the image. A cold front, which is the blue line with triangles, a warm front which is a red line with spheres, and a stationary front which is both red and blue, triangles and spheres.

 On this image you can see the whole Africans area and the pressures it consists of. You can see that warm front, cold front, and stationary front on the bottom of the image. There aren't any more fronts except for the one you can see at the very top of the picture. There are also no more highs or lows on the continent that you cant see in the image above.