Does the Philippines Get Tornadoes?
Yes — though they are overshadowed by the typhoons. The Philippines regularly sees waterspouts and small tornadoes, known in Filipino as buhawi (and sometimes ipo-ipo for a whirlwind).
The short answer
Genuine tornadoes and waterspouts do occur across the Philippines, most often during thunderstorms in the transition between seasons and during the wet monsoon. They are usually weak and short-lived compared with the violent tornadoes of the US Plains, but they can still damage light structures and injure people.
What is a buhawi?
Filipinos use buhawi for both waterspouts and land tornadoes — spinning columns of air beneath a thunderstorm. Most are the weaker, non-supercell kind: they form when a growing storm's updraft stretches surface rotation upward. Over the country's vast coastlines and lakes, waterspouts are the most commonly observed form, sometimes coming ashore briefly before dissipating.
Why they are usually weak
The Philippines has enormous thunderstorm and moisture potential, but it lacks the strong clashing air masses and deep wind shear that spawn violent supercell tornadoes in the mid-latitudes. Most Philippine tornadoes are therefore brief and localised. That said, a strong buhawi can still unroof houses, topple trees, and hurt anyone caught outdoors.
Tornado versus typhoon
It is worth being clear about scale. A buhawi is a small, minutes-long local whirl. A typhoon is a storm hundreds of kilometres across that can last for days and kill thousands. In the Philippines, the tornado is a genuine but minor hazard; the typhoon is the catastrophic one.
Staying safe
Treat an approaching buhawi like any severe thunderstorm: move indoors and away from windows, secure loose outdoor items, and stay clear of the shoreline if a waterspout is offshore. On the water, steer at a right angle away from a waterspout's path and head for shore.