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Tornadoes during a hurricane

Emergency numbers differ by country

Numbers, agencies, and aid programs are different in every country. Your local page has the emergency numbers, disaster office, and shelter information for where you are. Find your local page.

If you get a tornado warning, go to the lowest floor, into an interior room with no windows, and cover your head. Do it now, then read the rest.

This page explains why hurricanes produce tornadoes, how you will be warned, and where to shelter.

If you only do three things

  1. Keep wireless emergency alerts turned on and your phone charged.
  2. Pick your tornado spot now: lowest floor, interior room, no windows.
  3. When a warning comes, go there and cover your head. Do not wait to see the tornado.

Why hurricanes make tornadoes

The spinning winds of a hurricane create small, fast forming tornadoes in its rain bands. They happen most often in the right front quadrant of the storm, the part ahead of the center and to the right of the direction it is moving. They also form in the outer rain bands, far from the center.

Hurricane tornadoes can start hours before landfall, while the sky where you are still looks like ordinary rain. They can continue for a day or more as the storm moves inland. Being far from the coast does not put you out of reach.

These tornadoes are usually smaller and shorter lived than the big tornadoes of the Great Plains in the United States. They are still strong enough to destroy mobile homes, tear off roofs, and throw cars. They form quickly and are hard to see in heavy rain, so you may get little warning.

How you will be warned

Tornado warnings come from your national weather service. Warning systems differ by country, so check your local help page for how alerts reach you. In the United States, the National Weather Service sends them as Wireless Emergency Alerts to phones in the warning area, on NOAA Weather Radio, and through local TV and radio.

  • Keep wireless emergency alerts turned on in your phone settings. Check now.
  • If you have a weather radio (NOAA Weather Radio in the United States), keep the alarm feature on, with fresh batteries.
  • If you are in a shelter, listen for staff instructions.

A tornado watch means conditions are right for tornadoes. A tornado warning means one has been spotted or seen on radar. Act on a warning right away. Hurricane tornadoes can be over you within minutes of the alert.

You may not hear a siren

Outdoor sirens are not everywhere, and you will not hear them over hurricane wind. Rely on your phone and radio.

Where to go

Go to the lowest floor of the building. Choose an interior room with no windows: a closet, bathroom, hallway, or the space under the stairs. Put as many walls between you and the outside as you can.

Do not go to a basement or ground floor if it is flooding or at risk of storm surge. In that case, use the lowest floor that is dry.

Get low. Crouch or lie down and cover your head and neck with your arms. Better still, put on a bike helmet or hard hat, or pull a mattress, couch cushions, or heavy blankets over you.

If you are in an apartment building, go to the lowest floor you can reach and get into an interior hallway or stairwell. Do not use the elevator. See Renters and apartments.

Mobile homes

Mobile and manufactured homes are not safe in a tornado or a hurricane. If you live in one, you should already have left for a sturdy building or a public shelter before the storm arrived. See Mobile homes.

If you are stuck in a mobile home and a tornado warning comes, get to a sturdy building if you can reach one in seconds. If you cannot, lie flat in a ditch or low spot away from the home, cover your head, and stay away from rising water. This is a last resort and a poor one, which is why leaving early matters so much.

If you are in a car

Do not try to outrun a tornado in hurricane conditions. Roads may be flooded or blocked, and visibility is poor. Get into the nearest sturdy building.

If there is no building, park away from trees and power lines, keep your seatbelt on, and get below window level with your head covered. See Caught outside or in a car.

After the warning ends

Stay in your tornado spot until the warning expires or officials say it is over. Then go back to your hurricane safe room, because the hurricane is still going. More tornado warnings may follow, sometimes several in one night.

Check on everyone. If anyone is hurt, call your local emergency number (911 in the United States and Canada), but understand that responders may not be able to reach you until the wind drops. See What to do during a hurricane for first aid basics.