Record Tornado Count for CA

[azskyman]

Thanks to a friend of mine at NOAA in Silver Springs, here's a note of interest for those of you who enjoy NEW records for tornadoes....

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO CA
330 PM PDT THUR JUNE 23 2005

...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE REPORTS RECORD TORNADO SEASON IN CALIFORNIA...

ALTHOUGH ONLY HALFWAY THROUGH THE YEAR...CALIFORNIA ALREADY HAS SET A RECORD FOR MOST TORNADOES IN A YEAR. WITH 27 CONFIRMED TORNADOES SO FAR THIS YEAR...THE FORMER RECORD OF 24...SET IN 1998...HAS BEEN EXCEEDED.

RIVERSIDE COUNTY HAS REPORTED THE MOST TORNADOES SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1951...THOUGH SO FAR THIS YEAR SACRAMENTO COUNTY...WITH FIVE TORNADOES...IS THE LEADER.

THOUGH TORNADOES HAVE OCCURRED IN EVERY MONTH OF THE
YEAR...HISTORICALLY MARCH IS THE PEAK MONTH FOR TORNADOES IN CALIFORNIA. DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE STATE HAVE DIFFERENT PEAK TORNADO PERIODS. TORNADOES ARE MOST FREQUENT IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA DURING DECEMBER...WHILE THE SACRAMENTO REGION PEAKS IN APRIL. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IS MORE LIKELY THAN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TO HAVE TORNADOES DURING THE SUMMER.



THE WORST TORNADO MONTH...ACCORDING TO THE RECORD BOOKS MAINTAINED BY THE NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER...WAS DECEMBER 1992...WHEN 15 TORNADOES WERE CONFIRMED IN CALIFORNIA. ALSO NOTEWORTHY WAS MARCH 1991...WHEN A DOZEN TORNADOES WERE REPORTED.

HONORS FOR MOST TORNADOES IN A SINGLE MONTH GO TO SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY...WHICH RECORDED FIVE TORNADOES IN SEPTEMBER 1976. THIS WAS CLOSELY FOLLOWED BY LOS ANGELES COUNTY...WITH FOUR TORNADOES IN NOVEMBER 1982...AND SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY...WITH FOUR TORNADOES IN APRIL 1996.

TO CONFIRM A TORNADO...EITHER THE TORNADO MUST BE OBSERVED TOUCHING THE GROUND OR THE DAMAGE PATTERN MUST BE CONSISTENT WITH WHAT IS EXPERIENCED IN A TORNADO. MANY OF CALIFORNIA'S TORNADOES TOUCH DOWN BRIEFLY AND DO LITTLE OR NO DAMAGE. AS A RESULT...IT IS BELIEVED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICIALS THAT CALIFORNIA HAS MORE TORNADOES THAN THE RECORD BOOKS INDICATE. AS NOTED BY ELIZABETH MORSE, METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE OF THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN SACRAMENTO..."EARLIER THIS YEAR THERE WERE STORMS WHERE THE CONDITIONS WERE IDEAL FOR TORNADOES...THE RADAR INDICATED A STRONG PROBABILITY OF TORNADOES...WEATHER SPOTTERS CALLED IN REPORTS OF FUNNEL CLOUDS...AND DAMAGE OCCURRED. HOWEVER...WHEN WE SENT OUT SURVEY TEAMS WE COULD NOT FIND EYEWITNESSES TO A TOUCHDOWN AND THE DAMAGE PATTERNS WERE INCONCLUSIVE. MUCH AS WE WANTED TO SAY A TORNADO HAD OCCURRED...WE HAD TO BE CONTENT WITH CALLING IT
THUNDERSTORM WIND DAMAGE."

IN CONTRAST TO THEIR MIDWEST COUSINS...CALIFORNIA TORNADOES GENERALLY ARE WEAK. TORNADOES ARE MEASURED USING THE FUJITA SCALE...WHICH CONSIDERS THE TYPE OF DAMAGE TO VEGETATION AND STRUCTURES. THE FUJITA SCALE RUNS FROM F0 TO F5...WITH F0 BEING THE WEAKEST. MOST CALIFORNIA TORNADOES ARE F0 OR F1. THE STRONGEST TORNADOES IN CALIFORNIA WERE DETERMINED TO BE F3S. EVEN SO... CALIFORNIA'S RELATIVELY WEAK TORNADOES CAN CAUSE SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. THERE HAVE BEEN TWO TORNADOES WHICH HAVE CAUSED MORE THAN 25 MILLION DOLLARS OF DAMAGE IN CALIFORNIA. WHILE NO CALIFORNIA TORNADOES HAVE YET BEEN KILLERS...PEOPLE HAVE BEEN INJURED.

CONFIRMED TORNADOES SO FAR IN CALIFORNIA BY DATE...NEAREST
CITY...AND COUNTY INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING

JANUARY 8...SOUTH OROVILLE (BUTTE)
JANUARY 9...HEMET (RIVERSIDE)
JANUARY 10...EL RIO (VENTURA)
JANUARY 11...VACAVILLE (SOLANO)
JANUARY 27...JENNER (SONOMA)
FEBRUARY 19...HUNTINGTON BEACH (ORANGE), FALLBROOK AND RAINBOW (BOTH SAN DIEGO), AND TEMECULA (RIVERSIDE)
FEBRUARY 21...THREE IN SACRAMENTO (SACRAMENTO)
FEBRUARY 23...CHULA VISTA (SAN DIEGO)
FEBRUARY 26...LAKE ELSINORE (RIVERSIDE)
MARCH 20...SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO (SAN MATEO), MODESTO (STANISLAUS), AND DUNNIGAN (YOLO)
MARCH 29...YUBA CITY (SUTTER)
APRIL 8...TWO IN SACRAMENTO (SACRAMENTO), DURHAM (BUTTE), AND MANTECA (SAN JOAQUIN)
APRIL 9...LIVINGSTON (MERCED) AND FOWLER (FRESNO)
MAY 9...YUBA CITY (SUTTER)
JUNE 6...TWO NEAR ARTOIS (GLENN)

[PTrackerLA]

That's alot of tornados for California. They've probably had more than we've had this year in LA given the dry pattern.

[Aslkahuna]

Most of those years with high tornadic activity in CA were Niño winter years since convective activity is more likely during those years.

Steve