EF0 tornado, Blackwells Corner, California, February 23, 2015

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

February 23, 2015

Touchdown

11:40 AM PST (19:40 UTC)

Lifted

11:50 AM PST (19:50 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Kern County

Touchdown point

35.480, -119.790

Lift-off point

35.480, -119.790

Record number

1502231340-01

The persistent high pressure over region began to break down on February 21, 2015, allowing a low pressure system to drop south into Central California on Sunday, February 22, directly over the San Joaquin Valley. The storm system lingered over the area through Monday, February 23. The storm brought showers and thunderstorms to the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Foothills. The showers and|thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall across parts of Kern County where flood|advisories were issued due to ponding of water on roadways. These advisories included the south end of the San Joaquin Valley as well as the Kern County mountain and desert areas. ||The upper level-low persisted until the 23rd, and wrap-around moisture flowed from the northeast into the east side of the San Joaquin Valley. Snow levels were fairly constant around 5000 feet over Kern and Tulare Counties during the 22nd-23rd. Around 5 to 10 inches of snow fell over the mountains of Kern and Tulare Counties, mainly during the afternoon of the 22nd and into the morning of the 23rd, and mainly above 6000 feet. A few snow showers persisted over the Sierra Nevada into the afternoon of the 23rd with a few locations in the high Sierra receiving 12 to 20 inches of snow over the two days. In addition, some instability showers and isolated thunderstorms developed in western Kern County around midday on the 23rd. One of the thunderstorms produced a brief weak tornado to the southwest of Belridge, or northwest of Taft, in the hills of the Temblor Range facing the southwestern San Joaquin Valley. There were reports of small hail about 0.25 inch in diameter reported with these thunderstorms. ||Storm total rainfall amounts during the 22nd-23rd were around 0.5 to one inch over the San Joaquin Valley from Fresno southward, up to one inch of rain fell in the desert areas, and around 1 to 1.5 inches (with some locally higher amounts) fell over the southern Sierra Nevada and adjacent foothills mainly below 5000 feet. The Tehachapi Mountains received around one quarter to one-half inch of rain, including a few inches of snow above 5000 feet.

Tornado spotted and photographed by the public. Estimated width 50 Yards with an estimated length of 1/2 mile. The duration of the tornado was estimated at 10 minutes.

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

Bakersfield/Meadows (BFL), 67 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Vandenberg AFB radar (KVBX), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:42 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 2015 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.