tornado near Venice
Screenshots from YouTube video by Breaking News
A powerful tornado ripped through the Mira community in northeastern Italy, a couple of miles west of Venice, near the Adriatic Sea. Unaccustomed to the phenomenon, the Italians were shocked, disconcerted and alarmed by the event.

A video posted on Facebook by Carlotta Menegazzo shows a classic cone-shaped whirlwind twisting across the town of 40,000 citizens, sucking up everything it can, damaging houses and businesses.


An eyewitness in a car made a video of the scene as debris lashed against the vehicle. The passengers in the car are arguing with the driver telling him he should drive away and get out of the tornado's path. But then they approach too close and the voices in the video start to become somewhat hysterical.

When the tornado crosses the road right in front of them, breaking trees and tossing large items around like toys, the driver realizes discretion is the better part of valor - he turns around and accelerates smartly away.

Infrared satellite imagery taken at 6:00pm in Venice, shows a heavy storm directly over the region where the tornado was filmed.

Tornadoes often occur near coastal regions. When the right combination of temperature and thunderstorms, atmospheric pressure differences combine, strong winds can create a tornado.

The most powerful tornados happen in the southern parts of the United States.