Three Sacramento-area tornadoes were confirmed in the boisterous first storm of the season on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
Survey teams from the weather service classified a funnel cloud in Elk Grove as an EF1 tornado. The Enhanced Fujita scale measures the strength of tornadoes from EF0 to EF5, based on damage.
The tornado in Elk Grove touched down at Waterman and Grantline roads about 4:45 p.m. and traveled a distance of about a mile to the northeast. Winds were estimated at 90 to 100 mph. The survey team said a "sturdy metal roof was bent back, and three tree trunks several feet in diameter were snapped."
More than 50 homes sustained damage in the Elk Grove tornado, such as blown-down fences and chunks of roof tile torn off, and parked vehicles were tossed about.
Another EF1 tornado was confirmed by the survey team at Lake of the Pines, near Highway 49 at Combie Road. It hit at 3 p.m. and traveled about 4 miles to the northeast, with winds up to 100 mph. Several trees, 1 to 3 feet in diameter, were snapped or uprooted, and power lines were struck down.
An EF1 tornado also touched down in Sutter County at the Mallard Lake Golf Center just south of Yuba City, snapping tree trunks and branches, damaging roofs of several homes and lifting an outbuilding off the ground and carrying it about 200 feet. The tornado there lasted 20 minutes, the weather service said.
A fourth tornado may have occurred in a rice field in the Yuba County community of Browns Valley, with no damage reported.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Anne Gonzales
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.