CALIFORNIA TORNADOES

CALIFORNIA TORNADOES

CALIFORNIA TORNADOES

Does California get tornadoes?
Yes! And they’re not as rare as you’ve been led to believe.

How many tornadoes does California get each year?

On average, California gets around ten tornadoes annually.

LOW-TOPPED SUPERCELLS

Since lift mechanisms are not as robust as parts of Tornado Alley, low-topped supercells are much more common in California when compared to their larger sibling, the classic supercell. Supercells are rotating thunderstorms that can create tornadoes, hail, lightning, straight line winds, and flash floods. Low-topped supercells reach heights around 30,000-35,000 feet and occur in the Central Valley’s Cali Alley from early Winter through early Spring. They are also often found along the coast—especially East of off-shore islands. 

SUPERCELLS

Classic supercells can be observed in the Central Valley’s Cali Alley in Spring months and Southern California deserts during the Summer’s monsoon. As these are more rare for California, they tend to only take place during Winter-to-Spring and Summer-to-Fall final seasonal transition events. California supercells can reach heights over 60,000 feet.

LANDSPOUTS

There’s not a single stand-out thing to be stated about landspout tornadoes in California. They can happen almost anywhere, are associated with non-rotating thunderstorms, and are typically quite weak.

WATERSPOUTS

Waterspouts happen often along California’s coast. Southern California leads the way as there is typically more moisture in the air to fuel storm cells. In addition, off-shore SoCal islands give storms a little extra lift. Coastal advection helps channel surface winds from the Southeast, resulting in wind shear. This helps spin low-topped supercells and, at times, waterspouts (tornadoes over water). Many other California waterspouts are not associated with rotating thunderstorms. They happen over the coast as well as lakes.

FIRE TORNADOES

Yes, you read that right. We aren’t talking about fire whirls, we’re talking about full-blown tornadoes. On fire. In a fire. While the heat from fires rises, it sucks in air from the area below and around it. When general wind patterns and topography aid the winds just right, resulting pyrocumulonimbus (fire thunderstorm) clouds can form these destructive vertical rotating updrafts. Legit tornadoes. On fire. Notable damage from the Carr fire rated one tornado an EF-3.

RECENT CALIFORNIA TORNADOES

January 4, 2021 | 2134 UTC
Corning, CA | Tehama County
39.96, -122.33

A POSSIBLE TORNADO TOUCHDOWN WAS REPORTED BY A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC IN WESTERN CORNING ... WITH MULTIPLE TREES KNOCKED DOWN ... A BARN AND OTHER BUILDINGS DAMAGED ... AND (STO)

January 4, 2021 | 2240 UTC
Vina, CA | Tehama County
39.97, -122.00

A TORNADO WAS SITED ON THE GROUND OUT IN AN OPEN FIELD NEAR VINA BY CALFIRE. NO DAMAGE HAS BEEN REPORTED. MULTIPLE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS CONFIRM A TORNADO IN CLEAR CONTACT (STO)
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