EF0 tornado in Mariposa County, California

A National Weather Service Storm Survey confirmed that a weak EF 0 tornado had touched down near the intersection of Ben Hur Road and Beach Road south of Mariposa.

A strong upper low pressure system approached the central California coast during the morning of February 2. Ahead of the low, strong southerly winds impacted the Grapevine area along Interstate 5 for much of the morning. By late morning the strong winds spread northward into the Bakersfield area where there were numerous reports of downed trees and wind damage. As the main low moved inland during the day, moderate to heavy precipitation spread into area and produced several instances of roadway and nuisance flooding. Scattered thunderstorms brought additional rainfall and small hail to the San Joaquin Valley and southern Sierra foothills during the late afternoon. One thunderstorm produced a brief small tornado south of Mariposa. Several stations in the San Joaquin Valley picked up over an inch of rain while several stations in the mountains measured between 2 and 5 inches of liquid precipitation. The precipitation fell mainly as snow above 5000 feet where heavy snowfall was reported at several stations and several feet of new snowfall was estimated at several SNOTELS from this storm and the following storm which moved through the area on February 4 and 5.