EF1 tornado in Glenn County, California

Tornado March 26, 2014 · Glenn County, California

EF1

Rating

1.6 mi

Whole path

50 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Glenn County → Glenn County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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 EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

Based on eye witness interviews we believe this was the first tornado to touch down around 5:30 pm, and then tracked southeast for about 5-10 minutes. A pheasant pen and an outbuilding both lost their roofs. The outbuildings roof was made of sheet metal and some individual pieces were thrown between 800-1000 feet east/southeast of the outbuildings location. Some of the heavier pieces (150 lbs) were thrown 350 feet from the original outbuilding.

The wider storm

A trough over the eastern Pacific dropped southward over the region bringing a series of shortwaves across interior Northern California. These shortwaves brought enough instability and moisture to produce tornadic supercells to interior NorCal. One tornado was reported on March 25th and five tornadoes were reported on March 26th. The trough also brought heavy snow to the Northern Sierra Nevada and Western Plumas County, mainly Wednesday and Wednesday night (March 26) with snow levels dropping to 4000-5000 ft.

Began near Bayliss (39.5905, -122.0894).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Glenn County EF0 Butte County EF0 Placer County EF0 Sutter County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 508187. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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