california tornado

california tornadoJanuary 22nd, 2010 Tornado in Huntington Harbor, CA.  photo:  pathale.com

California surprisingly has its fair share of Tornados. To demonstrate my point I’ve listed all the tornados in California between the years 1880 & 2000 which total over 300.  Add to that the past decade and we’re lookin’ at even more.

sunnyvale ca tornado damnageTornado in Sunnyvale, CA in 1952 causes over $2 million damage in Bay Area.

Between 1880 and 2000 in California there were:

–  184 F0 Tornados (40-72mph winds, 10-50 meter wide destruction path, light damage, some damage to chimneys; branches broken off trees; shallow-rooted trees pushed over; sign boards damaged)

117 F1 Tornados (73-112mph winds, 30-150 meter wide destruction path, moderate damage, the lower limit is the beginning of hurricane wind speed; peels surface off roofs; mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned; moving autos pushed off the roads; attached garages may be destroyed)

34 F2 Tornados (113-157mph winds, 110-250 meter wide destruction path, significant damage, roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars overturned; large trees snapped or uprooted; highrise windows broken and blown in; light-object missiles generated)

335 Total Tornados in CA between 1880-2000

95 injuries resulting from Tornados in CA

0 deaths resulting from Tornados in CA

It’s actually pretty nuts that we’ve had 34 F2 Tornados in Cali!  And, kinda scary…

tornado yuba city june 1st, 2011

The tornado pictured above touched down near Yuba City in Northern California yesterday, June 1st, 2011.  How powerful was it?  Not that powerful as the footage below displays.  But, it was a Tornado… in California…yesterday.  3/4 inch hail was also reported from this storm.  Tahoe got 7 inches of snow out of the same storm yesterday.

Video of the tornado that touched down in Yuba City on June, 1st, 2011.

tornado california may 2011

This tornado is from May  25th, when at least 3 tornados touched down in Butte County in Northern California.

What was more impressive was one of the 3 tornados that touched down in Butte Country on May 25th, 2011. The tornado featured in the above picture was captured on video from a helicopter.  They won’t let us embed the video so watch it here:  Video of May 25th, 2011 Tornado from a helicopter.

These tornados on May 25th damaged hundreds of acres of almond tree orchards and destroyed an estimated 25,000 trees.

“It literally snapped those trees and splintered them,” one local farmer said. “They looked like matchsticks.”

Video of the tornado in Maxwell, CA on March 21st, 2011.

There was also a powerful tornado in Maxwell in Northern California on March 21st, 2011.  The video above show that this one was the real deal.  This was exactly the same time that Tahoe was getting absolutely puked on!  Squaw Valley reported 34” of new snow on March 20th, 2011.

california tornados in 2010

In 2010 There were 8 tornados.  The image above shows their strength and location.

Tornados in California are a reality that we apparently have to deal with here.  They are somewhat rare, but we’ve already had at least 4 touch down in Northern California since May 25th. So, they don’t feel very rare right now.

At least we don’t have many Fire Tornados…or do we?

fire tornado

 

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