Tornado, Kern
- When
- February 17, 2:15 PM PST to 2:20 PM PST
- Where
- Kern County, Bakersfield
- Rating
- F0
- Path length
- 0.3 mi
- Path width
- 10 yd
- Property damage
- $10,000
- Coordinates
- 35.370, -119.000
Tornado in California, February 17, 1997
Eyewitness accounts support surface evidence that some minor damage occurred in southwest Bakersfield associated with a funnel presence. The tornado is classed as a small F0 with a relatively short path and narrow in width.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS HNX wrote it up.
Eyewitness accounts support surface evidence that some minor damage occurred in southwest Bakersfield associated with a funnel presence. The tornado is classed as a small F0 with a relatively short path and narrow in width. Large hail also accompanied this storm. One indirect weather-related fatality occurred with the county thunderstorms as a vehicle overturned on a rain-slickened road 8 miles northwest of Bakersfield at 1515 PST.
The radar
The Los Angeles radar (KVTX), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:13 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
More
Every storm in California in 1997Every state in 1997This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for California, 1997Warnings in California, February 1997
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5587213.