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EF0 tornado in Yuba County, California

Tornado October 22, 2012 · Yuba County, California

EF0

Rating

0.4 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The Browns Valley Tornado: Supercells developed behind the cold front along a north-south boundary in the middle of the Central Valley, where both instability and shear were large. Law enforcement reported a brief tornado touchdown in a rice field. The estimated damage path length was about 100 ft to the northeast with wind speeds estimated at 70-80mph or less. No damage was associated with this tornado.

The wider storm

A strong low pressure system moved through northern California, bringing several feet of snow to the mountains, significant rainfall to the valley and foothills, and tornadic supercells in the valley.

Began near Browns Vly (39.2350, -121.4560).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Sutter County EF1 Yuba County EF1 Sacramento County EF1 Nevada County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 411519. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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