F1 tornado, Temecula, California, February 19, 2005

1. F040 to 72 mph

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

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   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

F1

Date

February 19, 2005

Touchdown

9:35 AM PST (17:35 UTC)

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Riverside County

Touchdown point

33.480, -117.170

Lift-off point

33.500, -117.150

Record number

636

A supercell thunderstorm came ashore in northern Oceanside and produced two tornadoes as it moved northwest from near Camp Pendleton to Temecula. The first tornado was spotted just northeast of Oceanside in rural Fallbrook. The tornado knocked out power, blew down trees and fences, ripped off roof tiles, shredded a boat cover, tossed a swing set, and sent patio furniture flying. The supercell continued to show strong rotation as it moved towards Rainbow, where the second tornado was reported. This tornado tore tiles off of the roofs of several buildings along Old US 395, overturned a large truck on I-15, and sent Palm Tree crowns and a shed flying across the freeway. The tornado then crossed into Riverside County near Rainbow Gap where it damaged some small water towers, a fence, and a car. The most severe damage occurred as the tornado made its descent from Rainbow Gap to the Temecula Creek Golf Couse Inn and Rainbow Canyon Villages in far southwestern Temecula. At least 100 trees, some 100 years old, were blown over in and around the golf course. Most fences and trees in the residential area of Rainbow Canyon Villages were blown over, and several homes had roof shingles blown off.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:19 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 radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 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.