F0 tornado, Fowler, California, May 9, 2005

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

May 9, 2005

Touchdown

11:18 AM PDT (18:18 UTC)

Path length

0.0 miles (0.0 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Fresno County

Touchdown point

36.630, -119.680

Lift-off point

36.630, -119.680

Record number

97

A brief touchdown of a small tornado occurred during the late morning of the 9th in Southern Fresno County near the town of Fowler. No damage was reported and the funnel was seen by numerous motorists and the California Highway Patrol.

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

NWS Hanford, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 9, 9:08 AM PDT, 2 hours 10 minutes earlier.

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Fresno - Chandler (FCH), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The San Joaquin Valley radar (KHNX), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:19 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 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.