Tornado Warnings in California
304 tornado warnings since 1986. An alert counts here when it covered any part of the state, so the counties below add up to more than the state. The archive of tornado warnings reaches back to 1986.
Tornado Warnings by county
Each county as a circle sized by its count since 1986. Tap one for its archive.
- Tornado Warnings
- 304
- Busiest year
- 201922 tornado warnings
- Average year
- 8over 38 years on file
Over time
By year
Before October 2007 these were issued for whole counties, and a storm crossing three counties was often three warnings; since then one polygon follows the storm. The count changed with the practice, not only with the weather.
By month of the year
By county
Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.
- Fresno County33
- Butte County32
- Glenn County24
- Tehama County21
- Madera County21
- Los Angeles County21
- Merced County20
- Tulare County19
- San Bernardino County18
- Mariposa County15
- San Diego County14
- Sutter County14
- Sacramento County14
- San Joaquin County13
- Yuba County13
- Stanislaus County12
- Riverside County11
- Kern County11
- Calaveras County10
- Yolo County10
- Santa Barbara County10
- Kings County9
- El Dorado County9
- Placer County9
- Orange County8
- Nevada County8
- Tuolumne County7
- Ventura County7
- Solano County7
- Colusa County7
- Amador County6
- Santa Cruz County5
- San Luis Obispo County4
- San Mateo County4
- Contra Costa County3
- Shasta County3
- Lassen County2
- Plumas County2
- Humboldt County2
- San Benito County2
The latest tornado warnings
The most recent on file, newest first.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 21, 5:16 PM PDT | Tornado Warning | HNX | Fresno | 29 min |
| Apr 21, 2:37 PM PDT | Tornado Warning | HNX | Fresno, Madera | 23 min |
| Apr 21, 2:19 PM PDT | Tornado Warning | HNX | Fresno, Madera | 26 min |
| Apr 12, 2:05 PM PDT | Tornado Warning | STO | Butte, Tehama | 25 min |
| Apr 10, 2:21 PM PDT | Tornado Warning | STO | San Joaquin, Stanislaus | 24 min |
| Apr 9, 5:38 PM PDT | Tornado Warning | HNX | Fresno, Madera | 37 min |
| Feb 17, 12:41 AM PST | Tornado Warning | LOX | Santa Barbara | 17 min |
| Jan 5, 3:56 PM PST | Tornado Warning | MTR | San Mateo, Santa Cruz | 19 min |
| Jan 3, 11:18 AM PST | Tornado Warning | EKA | Humboldt | 12 min |
Nearby
Sources
National Weather Service watches, warnings, advisories and statements from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's VTEC archive, which reconstructs tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood and marine warnings back to 1986 from the NWS text archive. Storm Prediction Center watches and mesoscale discussions from SPC's archive through the Mesonet. County centers from the US Census Bureau. Rebuilt daily.