Tornadoes · United States · California · 2010

EF0 tornado, Chrome, California, March 8, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Glenn County on March 8, 2010, touching down at 4:25 PM PST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

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

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

  6. EF5over 200 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
March 8, 2010
Touchdown
4:25 PM PST (00:25 UTC)
Lifted
4:30 PM PST (00:30 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Glenn County
Touchdown point
39.730, -122.550
Lift-off point
39.730, -122.550
Record number
1003081825-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed in the afternoon. A tornado was reported in the town of Chrome, Glenn County. This tornado damaged the roof of a barn. A funnel cloud was sighted near Cottonwood. Thunderstorms also dropped small hail and locally heavy rain over many locations in the northern Central Valley and into the Motherlode.

A rancher observed a tornado passing along a road, over a pond and then through a barn. A storm survey was done at the site, with the tornado rated as an EF0. The main damage was the roof of the barn was peeled back. A small trailer also suffered minor damage.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:41 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 air that afternoon

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.

Oakland, CA (KOAK), 00:00Z

0.4 hours before the tornado, 224 km from the path. March 9, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Oakland, CA at 00:00Z on 2010-03-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 4 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 1363 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Oakland, CA at 00:00Z on 2010-03-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
183 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1363 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Oakland, CA (KOAK), 12:00Z

11.6 hours after it, 224 km from the path. March 9, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Oakland, CA at 12:00Z on 2010-03-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -87109, lifted condensation level 815 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Oakland, CA at 12:00Z on 2010-03-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 72 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87109 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
815 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
72 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Red Bluff Municipal (RBL), 53 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:54 UTC5139100° 10 kt1015.2
23:54 UTC5138120° 7 kt1015.6
00:54 UTC5039140° 3 kt1015.9
01:54 UTC4940350° 3 kt1016.3

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

The radar

The Beale AFB radar (KBBX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:23 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:30 UTCTORNADO8 Ne Alder SpringsGlenn, CAAN EF0 TORNADO DEVELOPED NEAR CHROME CA... WHICH IS 8 MILES NE OF ALDER SPRINGS. THE TORNADO TRAVELED IN A SOUTHERLY DIRECTION FOR APPROXIMATELY A QUARTER MILE DISTANCE. PRIMARY DAMAGE WAS TO THE ROOF OF A BARN WITH MINO

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 8, 2010

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 85:20 PM CSTEF2Roger Mills, OK9.5100$1.0 million
March 86:16 PM CSTEF0Custer, OK0.110

What this means

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.

Sources

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