Tornado with 90 mph wind caused damage in Northern California during strong thunderstorms
A brief tornado with up to 90 mph wind touched down Tuesday evening in Butte County, uprooting trees and damaging carports in Oroville as a line of thunderstorms moved through Northern California, weather officials said.
About 5:40 p.m. Tuesday, a strong thunderstorm moved north-northeast across the northern end of Oroville, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
The weather radar had detected a line of strong thunderstorms with gusty wind, pea-size hail and heavy rain. But there was no tornado warning in effect, weather service officials said in a news release. Thunderstorms had been in the forecast for several days leading up to Tuesday’s storms.
The EF-1 tornado then touched down near the intersection of La Palma Drive and Table Mountain Boulevard, moving north-northeast for about two minutes before the tornado lifted, according to the weather service.
The tornado damaged shingles on roofs and several carports, while uprooting numerous trees, snapping off tree limbs and toppling a free-standing light pole. The weather service did not receive reports of the damage until well after the tornado event.
“Brief weak tornadoes are very difficult to detect using radar, whereas large and destructive tornadoes are much easier to detect and issue warnings in advance,” weather service officials said in the news release.
An “EF-1” tornado refers to the Enhanced Fujita scale, which weather officials use to categorize tornadoes by intensity and damage. An EF-5 tornado is the most damaging; an EF-0 is the least damaging while still qualifying as a tornado.
On Wednesday, meteorologists from the weather service met with Butte County Office of Emergency Management and county public works officials to survey the damage.
The tornado width was measured at 90 yards with a path length of 0.4 miles, according to the weather service. No injuries were reported.
Security camera video from a nearby apartment complex was used to confirm the tornado, according to the weather service.
