Thunderstorm Wind — San Mateo, California

2025-10-13 · near Butano Park, San Mateo, California

Event narrative

A strong thunderstorm cell touched down just south of Ano Nuevo State Park at 4:23 PM. Video from a farm near the location showed damage to structures, sparking speculation of a possible tornado. Subsequently, an NWS team conducted a storm survey at the site. The team identified damage consistent with straight line winds. Damage was noted from the coast, just south of Ao Nuevo State Park, eastward about 3/4 of a mile. This damage included, but not limited to, a hoop house visqueen cover being torn off, structural damage to two hoop houses, a large water storage tank being transported over a 1/4 mile, and moderately large diameter coastal cypress trees being snapped. There was one item seen transported counter to straight line wind flow and these were determined to have been caught up in very small scale temporary terrain driven rotation. There is no indication in the damage field of tornadic activity. While the radar signature did show rotation at elevation while approaching the coast, it appears to collapse as it comes ashore, lending itself to thunderstorm outflow and a straight line wind event.

Wider weather episode

A notable early season rainstorm caused minor flooding and thunderstorm impacts across the Bay Area and Central Coast on October 13th and 14th. Many parts of the region saw the most rainfall since the last winter season, and some areas received the equivalent of an entire October's worth of rainfall. Towards the evening of the 13th and the 14th, thunderstorms started to impact the Central Coast. A cell with strong straight line winds damaged a farm near Pescadero in southern San Mateo County, and two funnel clouds were reported in Salinas and Hollister.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.1149, -122.3047)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1291057. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.