Tornadoes · United States · California · 2016
EF0 tornado, Waterford, California, April 27, 2016
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Stanislaus County on April 27, 2016, touching down at 4:31 PM PDT and reaching 5 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- April 27, 2016
- Touchdown
- 4:31 PM PDT (23:31 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:45 PM PDT (23:45 UTC)
- On the ground
- 14 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 5 yards (5 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $500
- County
- Stanislaus County
- Touchdown point
- 37.623, -120.756
- Lift-off point
- 37.623, -120.756
- Record number
- 1604271731-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A weather system resulted in thunderstorms developing across the Southern Sacramento and Northern San Joaquin valley and adjacent foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The storms resulted in half inch hail deep enough to cause slick road conditions, and slight damage to a carport. Lightning struck a tree, causing a portion of it to split off. An EF0 tornado was also observed that uprooted a eucalyptus tree and moved a shed off it's foundation.
An EF0 tornado with swirling debris was observed near Hickman elementary school by a Sheriff's deputy and several members of the public. A large eucalyptus tree was uprooted, a shed was moved off its foundation and pushed into a fence, and a green house was damaged.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:06 UTC | 20:44 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | STO |
| 00:48 UTC | 03:01 UTC | Flood Advisory | STO |
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 20:04 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), 12:00Z
11.5 hours before the tornado, 128 km from the path. April 27, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -92863 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1276 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 60 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 62 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.3 K/km
Oakland, CA (KOAK), 00:00Z
0.5 hours after it, 128 km from the path. April 28, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 10 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -63 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 439 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1252 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 44 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 75 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 66 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.1 K/km
The surface observations
Modesto City/Sham (MOD), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:53 UTC | 63 | 51 | 280° 19 kt | 1010.8 | VCTS -RA | |
| 22:15 UTC | 67 | 49 | 290° 17 kt | 1010.5 | ||
| 22:43 UTC | 67 | 44 | 270° 14 kt | 1010.2 | VCTS | |
| 22:53 UTC | 67 | 43 | 290° 15 kt | 1010.2 | ||
| 23:44 UTC | 68 | 43 | 300° 12 kt | 17 | 1009.8 | VCTS |
| 23:53 UTC | 68 | 42 | 310° 16 kt | 20 | 1009.8 | |
| 00:53 UTC | 66 | 44 | 290° 11 kt | 17 | 1009.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The San Francisco radar (KMUX), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:31 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:33 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | 1 Nne Merced | Merced, CA | |
| 22:35 UTC | TORNADO | Waterford | Stanislaus, CA | POSSIBLE TORNADO. LARGE SHED MOVED OFF FOUNDATION AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. SHERIFF DEPUTY NOTED SOME DEBRIS FLYING THROUGH THE AIR. |
| 22:45 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Sse Waterford | Stanislaus, CA | AN EF0 TORNADO WITH SWIRLING DEBRIS WAS OBSERVED NEAR HICKMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BY A SHERIFF'S DEPUTY AND SEVERAL MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC. A LARGE EUCALYPTUS TREE WAS UPROOTED, A SHED WAS MOVED OFF OF THE FOUNDATION AND PU |
| 22:45 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Sse Waterford | Stanislaus, CA | POSSIBLE TORNADO OBSERVED BY PUBLIC NEAR HICKMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. OBSERVERS REPORTED FUNNEL CLOUD AND A LARGE EUCALYPTUS TREE UPROOTED WITH DEBRIS IN AIR. |
| 02:06 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Sse Waterford | Stanislaus, CA | POSSIBLE TORNADO OBSERVED BY PUBLIC NEAR HICKMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. OBSERVERS REPORTED FUNNEL CLOUD AND A LARGE EUCALYPTUS TREE UPROOTED WITH DEBRIS IN AIR. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 27, 2016
29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 27 | 1:06 AM CDT | EF1 | Franklin, AR | 3.2 | 500 | $10,000 | ||
| April 27 | 1:12 AM CDT | EF1 | Madison, AR | 6.2 | 500 | $250,000 | ||
| April 27 | 1:18 AM CDT | EF0 | Franklin, AR | 5.9 | 700 | $100,000 | ||
| April 27 | 1:49 AM CDT | EF0 | Greene, MO | 0.2 | 40 | $100,000 | ||
| April 27 | 4:43 AM CDT | EF0 | Harris, TX | 0.4 | 40 | 1 | $200,000 | |
| April 27 | 5:58 AM CDT | EF1 | Tyler, TX | 0.7 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| April 27 | 6:22 AM CDT | EF1 | Jasper, TX | 2.2 | 50 | $7,000 | ||
| April 27 | 2:10 PM CDT | EF0 | Saunders, NE | 0.2 | 25 | |||
| April 27 | 3:14 PM CDT | EF1 | Montgomery, IA | 1.7 | 50 | |||
| April 27 | 3:43 PM CDT | EF1 | Douglas, NE | 0.7 | 50 | |||
| April 27 | 3:52 PM CDT | EF0 | Douglas, NE | 0.0 | 25 | |||
| April 27 | 3:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Douglas, NE | 0.2 | 25 | |||
| April 27 | 4:33 PM CDT | EF0 | Hopkins, KY | 0.3 | 30 | |||
| April 27 | 4:40 PM CDT | EF0 | Taylor, IA | 2.2 | 200 | |||
| April 27 | 4:44 PM CDT | EF0 | Taylor, IA | 0.9 | 40 | |||
| April 27 | 4:52 PM CDT | EF0 | Daviess, MO | 4.3 | 25 | |||
| April 27 | 5:12 PM CDT | EF0 | Taylor, IA | 0.6 | 50 | $25,000 | ||
| April 27 | 5:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Webster, KY | 1.2 | 30 | |||
| April 27 | 3:24 PM PDT | EF0 | Napa, CA | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| April 27 | 5:40 PM CDT | EF0 | Union, IA | 4.0 | 250 | $3,000 | ||
| April 27 | 6:22 PM CDT | EF0 | Daviess, KY | 4.2 | 125 | $100,000 | ||
| April 27 | 6:23 PM CDT | EF0 | Montgomery, IL | 4.9 | 25 | |||
| April 27 | 6:36 PM CDT | EF1 | Daviess, KY | 2.9 | 150 | $75,000 | ||
| April 27 | 6:58 PM CDT | EF0 | Effingham, IL | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| April 27 | 7:47 PM CDT | EF1 | Scotland, MO | 0.2 | 40 | $100,000 | ||
| April 27 | 7:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Richland, IL | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| April 27 | 8:23 PM CDT | EF0 | Shelby, MO | 0.8 | 75 | |||
| April 27 | 8:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Scotland, MO | 0.2 | 30 | $100,000 | ||
| April 27 | 9:00 PM CDT | EF1 | Lewis, MO | 2.0 | 150 |
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.