Tornado, Tulare
- When
- January 20, 3:35 PM PST to 3:45 PM PST
- Where
- Tulare County, Exeter to 1 mi ENE of Exeter
- Rating
- F0
- Path length
- 3 mi
- Path width
- 10 yd
- Property damage
- $50,000
- Coordinates
- 36.320, -119.130
Tornado in California, January 20, 1997
Funnel presence with damage on the ground in the vicinity leads to the conclusion of a small F0 tornado. Roofs were damaged, fences and trees downed, and some debris lifted that caused power outages when striking power transmission lines in a 3 mile "path" for the funnel that only occasionally was on the ground.
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
- $50,000
- 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.
Funnel presence with damage on the ground in the vicinity leads to the conclusion of a small F0 tornado. Roofs were damaged, fences and trees downed, and some debris lifted that caused power outages when striking power transmission lines in a 3 mile "path" for the funnel that only occasionally was on the ground. Severe weather reports from the general public in the area around Exeter and another small Tulare County town of Farmersville are viewed as chaotic. However WSR-88D signatures indicate the presence of outflow boundary interaction and subsequent thunderstorm re-development in the area.
The radar
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
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
- Heavy Rain in California, January 20, 1997
- Flash Flooding and Debris Flow in Puerto Rico, January 20 to 21, 1997
- Winter Storm in California, January 20 to 22, 1997
- Flood in Hawaii, January 20, 1997
- Heavy Snow in California, January 20, 1997
- Heavy Snow in California, January 20, 1997
- Heavy Snow in California, January 20 to 21, 1997
- Heavy Snow in California, January 20 to 21, 1997
- Heavy Snow in California, January 20 to 21, 1997
- Waterspout in California, January 20, 1997
- Funnel Cloud in California, January 20, 1997
- Funnel Cloud in California, January 20, 1997
More
Every storm in California in 1997Every state in 1997This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for California, 1997Warnings in California, January 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: 5587201.