Tornadoes · United States · California · 2018
EF0 tornado, Yettem to Seville, California, March 22, 2018
From Yettem to Seville, this EF0 tornado ran 1.2 miles across Tulare County on March 22, 2018, touching down at 3:49 PM PDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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
- March 22, 2018
- Touchdown
- 3:49 PM PDT (22:49 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:50 PM PDT (22:50 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 1.2 miles (1.9 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Tulare County
- Touchdown point
- 36.486, -119.252
- Lift-off point
- 36.488, -119.231
- Record number
- 1803221649-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A warm plume of moist tropical air brought a very active period of weather to the area between the evening of March 20 and the evening of March 22. This resulted in widespread heavy rainfall across the area on March 21 and 22 which produced flooding at many locations with rock slides and debris flows closing several roads across the area. The most impacted areas being around Mariposa as a result of the Detwiler Fire burn scar and Springville as a result of the Pier Fire burn scar. In addition, thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of March 22 producing flash flooding at many locations as well as funnel clouds. A Flash Flood Emergency was issued for most of western Mariposa County where several buildings were flooded and some areas were evacuated. A small tornado briefly touched down near Dinuba in Tulare County. In addition, several feet of new snow fell above 9000 feet. Below the snow line, much of the Southern Sierra Nevada measured between 4 and 8 inches of rainfall while most of the San Joaquin Valley picked up between 1 and 3 inches of rainfall.
A storm chaser intercepted a small tornado between Yettem and Seville on State Route 201. The tornado was on the ground for a minute or less and no damage was reported.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:56 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HNX |
| 23:18 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HNX |
| 23:31 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HNX |
| 00:03 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | HNX |
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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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 radar
The San Joaquin Valley radar (KHNX), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:48 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:58 UTC | FLOOD | 4 N Laton | Fresno, CA | FOWLER JUST NORTH OF ELKHORN COMPLETELY FLOODED. |
| 22:45 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 Nne Visalia | Tulare, CA | BRIEF COLD AIR FUNNEL REPORTED BY NWS EMPLOYEE AT THE CORNER OF HOUSTON AND MOONEY IN NORTH VISALIA. |
| 22:50 UTC | TORNADO | 9 Ese Dinuba | Tulare, CA | EF0 TORNADO BETWEEN YETTEM AND STONE CORRAL. ON THE GROUND FOR A MINUTE OR LESS. NO DAMAGE REPORTED. PHOTO SENT TO AN NWS EMPLOYEE. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 22:50 UTC | TORNADO | 9 Ese Dinuba | Tulare, CA | EF0 TORNADO BETWEEN YETTEM AND STONE CORRAL. ON THE GROUND FOR A MINUTE OR LESS. NO DAMAGE REPORTED. PHOTO SENT TO AN NWS EMPLOYEE. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. THE DURATION OF THE TORNADO EVENT WAS 1 MINUTE. |
| 23:10 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | Tulare | Tulare, CA | ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF INCH DIAMETER HAIL, OR PEA TO DIME-SIZED. |
| 23:15 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 8 Ese Dinuba | Tulare, CA | REPORT RECEIVED ON FACEBOOK FOR THE YETTEM AREA (NEAR INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 201 AND RD 140). TIME APPROXIMATE. |
| 23:15 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 9 Nw Woodlake | Tulare, CA | IN VICINITY OF AVE 384 AND RD 156 IN NORTHWESTERN TULARE COUNTY, OR TO THE EAST OF TRAVER. |
| 01:15 UTC | FLOOD | 8 Wnw Camp Nelson | Tulare, CA | PER CALTRANS - ROAD CLOSURE DUE TO MUDSLIDE ON HIGHWAY 190 ABOUT 8.4 MILES WEST OF CAMP NELSON. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California nowThe forecast where you are
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.