EF0 tornado, Yuba City South, California, February 2, 2019

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 2, 2019

Touchdown

5:50 PM PST (01:50 UTC)

Lifted

5:55 PM PST (01:55 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$5,000

County

Sutter County

Touchdown point

39.050, -121.650

Lift-off point

39.053, -121.651

Record number

1902021950-01

A cold storm brought blizzard conditions in the mountains and severe thunderstorms with weak tornadoes, hail, flooding in the Central Valley. There was very heavy mountain snow, especially in the Sierra, with storm total snow accumulations to 6 to 8 feet. The heavy snow coupled with strong winds brought whiteout conditions and shut down major mountain roads such as I80. Snow accumulations with this cold storm extended down through the foothills, causing tens of thousands of homes to lose power and many schools to close.

National Weather Service meteorologists confirmed an EF0 tornado touched down at approximately 5:50 pm pst on Saturday, February 2nd, just south of Yuba City, CA. This tornado touch down was very brief as it tracked to the north northwest. Radar data and the damage pattern were used to confirm the touchdown. Several trees were knocked down and there was minor roof damage to a home. Leaves and branches were completely stripped off one side of a tree.

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 00:58 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 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.

Marysville/Yuba County (MYV), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Beale AFB radar (KBBX), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:47 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 2019 tornado in CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California nowThe forecast where you are

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.