F0 tornado, Kerman to Calwa, California, February 27, 2000

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F0

Date

February 27, 2000

Touchdown

2:10 PM PST (22:10 UTC)

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Fresno County

Touchdown point

36.600, -119.870

Lift-off point

36.600, -119.870

Record number

50

Numerous almond trees knocked down in a rural area of Fresno County. Eyewitness accounts indicate rotational motion in almond blossom petals, more than 20 fallen trees in the debris field, and the movement of irrigation pipe as indicators. Event reported to the NWS several hours afterwards. Tornado traveled from east and ending heading northeast. This tornado developed on the south end of the line of convection referenced in the Madera County tornado event.

Reported 48 hours late by a storm spotter. Another tornado within this event in a rural area of Fresno County (intersection of Parlier and Brawley to Parlier and Valentine). The tornado moved east over open land and fallow row crops. No damage.

The small, short-lived tornado moved over open ground close to a warehouse and ending up close to the Fresno County dump south of Fresno and the small community of Calwa. No damage.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

29 minutes of warning. NWS HNX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:41 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:32 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The San Joaquin Valley radar (KHNX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:08 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California nowThe forecast where you are

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.