As for Central California, he said, “We usually get one or two tornadoes through our area between March and April.”
On Saturday afternoon, a tornado hit Kings County. It was the second tornado to hit Central California in two days.
Carlos Molina, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Hanford office, said the tornado hit the south end of Corcoran at 4:37 p.m. He said that the tornado headed east and then broke up before it reached U.S. Route 99.
In a report released Friday, the agency said that meteorologists had checked out the scene of the tornadoes in Grover Beach and the Los Osos area and found damage on the ground. The damage and wind speeds seen in the area led them to rate both storms as EF1 on a scale that goes from EF0 to EF5. Wind speeds can reach 86 to 110 mph in an EF1 tornado.Â
A tornado was seen in this county for the first time in 20 years. The weather service said it was the biggest tornado seen there since before 1950.
It’s been less than a day since a funnel cloud quickly hit the county of Madera, which is about 30 minutes north of Fresno. When the storm hit close to an elementary school, the kids had to hide in the cafeteria.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen two tornadoes happen right after each other,” Molina said, adding that the area was wet from a winter storm, which made the conditions perfect for the event.
Not long ago, two tornadoes hit the coast of San Luis Obispo County within a minute of each other. This time, there were two tornadoes right after each other.
Tornadoes hit San Luis Obispo County for the first time since 2004. At the time, officials said they were the biggest since before 1950, with winds of 95 mph.
On Saturday, a storm hit other areas of the state, bringing with it winds of up to 190 mph and almost 2 feet of snow in some places.