EF0 tornado, Jastro to Oil Jct, California, May 6, 2013

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 6, 2013

Touchdown

7:10 PM PDT (02:10 UTC)

Lifted

7:12 PM PDT (02:12 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

15 yards (14 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Kern County

Touchdown point

35.377, -119.046

Lift-off point

35.380, -119.043

Record number

1305062010-01

May began warm and dry. Humidities were in the teens across the mountains of Kern and Tulare Counties on May 1st through the 3rd, and as highs in the southern San Joaquin Valley climbed into the mid 90s on the 2nd, relative humidities in the south end of the Valley fell to 10 percent or lower for several hours.||An upper-level low approached central California on May 4th. The southerly flow ahead of the low funneled through the passes and canyons of the Temblors, Diablo Range and the Tehachapi Mountains. This created gusty winds along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley that persisted from the afternoon of the 4th through the evening of 5th. Winds gusted to 51 mph at Sunflower Valley, and to 50 mph at Panoche Road. A gust to 59 mph was measured at the California Highway Patrol Weigh Station at the base of the Grapevine during the late afternoon of May 5th.|Winds also gusted to 45 mph at Meadows Field, Bakersfield during this time. The gust at Meadows Field tied the highest gust on record at Bakersfield for May, last occurring on May 23rd, 1990.||The upper-level low moved to off Monterey Bay on the evening of May 5th. In addition to the gusty winds generated by the cyclonic circulation, the low also spun subtropical moisture into central California, and as a series of upper-level disturbances rotated around the low, they triggered showers and thunderstorms across the region on the 6th. One of the thunderstorms spawned a tornado that touched down at 7:10 PM on May 6th in the dry riverbed of the Kern River near the intersection of Old River Road and Stockdale Highway, not far from the California State University, Bakersfield, campus in west Bakersfield.||The low moved into San Luis Obispo County during the night of May 6th-7th, and tracked across Kern County during the morning of the 7th. Moderate showers continued across parts of the central California interior through the morning hours, and continued over the Southern Sierra Nevada into the afternoon. A few of the stronger showers caused some road flooding, including northeast of Chowchilla and northwest of Bakersfield.||As the low moved east of California on May 8th, the cyclonic flow continued to generate showers over the eastern flanks of the Southern Sierra Nevada, some of which drifted west of the crest and into the central and southern San Joaquin Valley. Showers also moved into the Tehachapi Mountains.||Thunderstorms over the Southern Sierra Nevada during the afternoon and evening of May 9th dropped small hail on the floor of Yosemite Valley. Nearly two inches of rain fell on Yosemite Valley, with 1.87 inch falling in only 30 minutes. This heavy rain caused some road flooding and ponding of water on the Yosemite Valley floor.||Further south, thunderstorms over southeastern Kern County produced little rain, but did generate gusty winds. One thunderstorm generated an outflow wind that was measured at 40 mph at the Edwards AFB North Base Auxiliary Field. Winds also gusted to 55 mph in the Indian Wells Valley.

A tornado occurred on the west side of Bakersfield. It was weak and short lived. The location was near the intersection of Stockdale Hwy and Old River Rd. No damage was reported and it was rated an EF0.

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.

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 00:57 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 Los Angeles radar (KVTX), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:12 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California nowThe forecast where you are

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.