atmosphere Article The Climatology of Significant Tornadoes in the Czech Republic Rudolf Brázdil 1,2,* , KateˇrinaChromá 2 , Tomáš Púˇcik 3, Zbynˇek Cernochˇ 4, Petr Dobrovolný 1,2, Lukáš Dolák 1,2, OldˇrichKotyza 5, Ladislava Reznˇ íˇcková 1,2 and Mateusz Taszarek 6,7 1 Institute of Geography, Masaryk University, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic;
[email protected] (P.D.);
[email protected] (L.D.);
[email protected] (L.R.)ˇ 2 Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic;
[email protected] 3 European Severe Storms Laboratory, 2700 Wiener Neustadt, Austria;
[email protected] 4 Vˇetˇrkovice206, 747 43 Vˇetˇrkovice,Czech Republic;
[email protected] 5 Regional Museum, 412 01 Litomˇeˇrice,Czech Republic;
[email protected] 6 Department of Meteorology and Climatology, Adam Mickiewicz University, 61-680 Pozna´n,Poland;
[email protected] 7 National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, OK 73072, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 1 June 2020; Accepted: 28 June 2020; Published: 29 June 2020 Abstract: In the Czech Republic, tornadoes may reach an intensity of F2 and F3 on the Fujita scale, causing “considerable” to “severe” damage. Documentary evidence is sufficient to allow the creation of a chronology of such events, from the earliest recorded occurrence in 1119 CE (Common Era) to 2019, including a total of 108 proven or probable significant tornadoes on 90 separate days. Since only 11 significant tornadoes were documented before 1800, this basic analysis centers around the 1811–2019 period, during which 97 tornadoes were recorded. Their frequency of occurrence was at its highest in the 1921–1930, 1931–1940, and 2001–2010 decades.