Abstract: Super large cooling towers (SLCTs) of nuclear power stations not only face normal climate (such as monsoon, etc.), but are also severely threatened by tornadoes and typhoons and, by other disaster-causing climates. Non-synoptic wind fields are significantly different from those of the monsoon in terms of design basic wind speed, wind profile, etc. Traditional wind resistance theory and design methods of the cooling towers need to be rechecked. Local instability is one of the key control factors in the design of structural geometric shape and tower shell thickness optimization, and it is necessary to evaluate the safety and stability of non-synoptic wind induced structural effects. Thusly, developed are the wind pressure distributions of a SLCT under tornado environments based on a tornado-like vortex simulator and a rigid pressure-measured model for the SLCT. Subsequently, based on the wind loading Codes (Buckling Stress State (BSS) method) and on the improved method proposed, the local stability performances of the SLCT under synoptic wind and tornado conditions are comparatively evaluated. Besides, the effects of tornado swirl ratios and the radial distance between the SLCT and the tornado vortex core on the structural local stability performance are systematically investigated. The results indicated that tornadoes are more detrimental to the local stability of the SLCT under specific conditions compared with the normal climate, and that the critical condition for the structural local stability is that the SLCT is located at the tornado vortex core radius and exposed to the tornado with a large swirl ratio. This will provide some guiding significances for the tornado-resistance design of cooling towers.