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F1 tornado in Santa Clara County, California

Tornado May 5, 1998 · Santa Clara County, California

F1
Rating
0.3 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$300K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F1 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F1 meant moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken; the scale paired it with winds of 73–112 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado briefly touched down in Los Altos CA on Alicia Way and continued to the Los Altos High School.A woman Tennis Coach at the high school was picked up and hurled around 20 feet and sustained injuries.

The wider storm

A Tornado touched down in the Chevy Chase residential area of Sunnyvale, CA near Hwy 85. The storm survey assessed the Damage to 15 home and a large chucrch as a mininimal F2.. One woman was injured when struck by flying debris. The storm was well documented on a video shot by a person from their backyard. The storm appears to be rotating anticyclonically from this video. This storm apparently developed from thunderstorms that developed in the lee of the Santa Cruz mountains over the W Santa Clara Valley.

Began near Los Altos (37.3800, -122.1200).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

F2 Santa Clara County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5645838. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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