EF0 tornado in Tehama County, California

Between approximately 2:05 pm and 2:06 pm PDT on Sunday April 12, 2026, video and radar evidence, and area ALERTCalifornia PG&E webcam footage showed a brief tornado about 4 miles southeast of Vina in an unpopulated, rural grassland area of Tehama County. Meteorologists made the determination based on video evidence that a brief tornado touched down from approximately 2:05 pm until 2:06 pm. There were no reports of damage or injury. It was determined that this was an EF-U (unknown) tornado that touched down for approximately 1 minute.

A spring storm brought rain, mountain snow and thunderstorms to interior northern California in early to mid April. Gusty winds with a line of thunderstorms on April 11th between 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM led to numerous reports of tree damage and power outages in the Greater Sacramento Area and into the adjacent Sierra foothills, with measured wind gusts of 35 to 40 mph observed. There were also numerous reports of roadway flooding. A touchdown of an EF-U tornado occurred from 2:05 PM to 2:06 PM on April 12th near Vina, CA. There were also reports of severe hail in thunderstorms. Heavy mountain snow brought major travel impacts to the Sierra Nevada from April 10th through 12th. UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab measured 42.6 inches of heavy snow. Kirkwood Ski Resort measured 41 inches of heavy snow. Wind gusts in the Sierra were measured generally between 45 and 55 mph.