Is north america the only place in the world that tornados occure?
600065
Tornadoes occur on all continents of the world except Antarctica, with the Great Plains of the United States accounting for 70% of the total number.  The area known as "tornado alley" has become a haven for storm chasers and a killing field for deadly twisters.  It stretches up through the central United States through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and other central states.
998013
It is Florida for the United States, at more than 100 days of Thunderstorms per year.  As far as the world is concerned, I'm not sure...but I think Florida is still up there.
624569
South of North America.
317871
to answer your second question..yes northern hemisphere tornadoes can, although rare, rotate clockwise. Here is a link or two that address both questions.
356933
India is a very common place where tornadoes occur.\n\nOther ones include China, most middle-eastern countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan), and northern Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Chad)\n\nIn general most places around 10-20 degrees above the equator.
305509
tornado begins in a severe thunderstorm called a supercell. A supercell can last longer than a regular thunderstorm. The same property that keeps the storm going also produces most tornadoes. The wind coming into the storm starts to swirl and forms a funnel. The air in the funnel spins faster and faster and creates a very low pressure area which sucks more air (and possibly objects) into it. \n\nThe severe thunderstorms which produce tornadoes form where cold dry polar air meets warm moist tropical air. This is most common in a section of the United States called Tornado Alley. Also, the atmosphere needs to be very unstable. \n\nTornadoes can form any time during the year, but most form in May. But, more severe ones form earlier because the most damge is caused in April. The more north you go, the later the peak tornado season is. This is because it takes longer to warm the northern parts of the plains so tornadoes form later. \n\nMost tornadoes spin cyclonically but a few spin anticyclonically. Because there are records of anticyclonic tornadoes, scientists don't think that the Coriolis Effect causes the rotations.
343523
Tornadoes have been reported in many other countries.  The U.S. just gets more of them than anywhere else; as already mentioned, formation conditions are the most favorable in the world in Tornado Alley.\n\nFor instance, Australia is another country that's believed to be a (distant) second in tornado activity; however, what tornadoes do form are probably underreported because of the sparse population.
222466
Dave in NC answered it perfectly.  Ill just add, if you are asking why tornados form over land- The rapid increase in heat needed to cause formation of tornados generally occurs only over land, since water modulates changes in heat.  However, sometimes they do form, but they are called waterspouts, and usually occur near hurricanes.
425858
cyclones are the same as tornadoes and occur on land.\n\ntyphoons are the same as hurricanes and occur along the coastline.  In the western hemisphere we call the hurricanes (like in the Americas). In the eastern hemisphere they are called typhoons (like in India).
243570
location is the difference: hurricanes in the atlantic and east pacific, typhoons in the west pacific, and cyclones in the indian ocean and south pacific. \nhowever, tornadoes are a completely different phenomenon and are much more localized, small scale "twisters", that can at times have winds of nearly 300 MPH (way higher than the most powerful hurricanes).
256868
Not at all true. Not only can they move west, there are sometimes tornadoes which don't spin counterclockwise.
551363
Even though tornadoes are most common in the U.S., they do occur in other places. Other popular tornado hangouts are the Netherlands, UK,  Bangladesh, India, Argentina, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Estonia, Uruguay. They have also been known to occur in Russia, France, Spain, Japan, and Brazil.
501639
Technically yes there must be a storm of some kind... But the tornado isn't usually in the center of a storm usually its on the southwestern corner or side of the storm and it might not even be raining in that part of the storm, making it appear that its not in the storm.\n\nTo have a tornado you need these 2 things....\n\n1. A convective rain shower/thunderstorm\n2. Winds in the upper and middle layers of the atmosphere running Perpendicular to eachother, or the winds in the lower and middle layers. ( basically wind blowing in 2 different directions at different altitudes of the storm, like at the ground the wind be blowing from the west and up about 10,000 feet the wind blowing from the south.)\n\nThats really about it... Those dont really mean that you will get a tornado, it just that those things must be present to create a tornado.
368827
north america is north of the equator and south america is outh
448654
Tornadoes can happen anywhere, anytime, at any place if the conditions are right.
396017
In the US Midwest, tornadoes are usually formed when a cold, dry air mass moving south from Canada collides with a warm, moist air mass moving north from the Gulf of Mexico (or Baja California, or the Atlantic, or what have you). \nThis produces large thunderstorm clouds known as supercells, which can produce heavy rains, hail, and tornados. \nTornados are formed in areas of the supercell called mesocyclones; which draws air into the storm. When you hear meteorologists talk about the "hook echo" on the radar, they're pointing out the mesocyclone. The best simple explanation (so far) for why the tornado starts to rotate is the phenomenon of vertical wind sheer, where wind changes direction at different elevations.\nSo, if you have access to a weather radar; you can see hook echos like the one below. If you have a wind velocity view (some do, some don't), look for a large difference in wind speed and direction around that hook echo.
599792
Tornado Alley might have the MOST frequency of tornadoes, but the worst type of tornadoes , I believe,are "waterspouts": tornadoes that form on oceans (yikes! where to hide from that one?)  They occur fairly around warm waters (including Florida).\n\nCheck these chilling pictures out\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Trombe.jpg\nhttp://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nws/images/big/wea00312.jpg