Tornado touches down in Northern California to become first of 2025 in US. Here’s where
California saw the first tornado of 2025 reported in the United States, after a whirlwind made landfall Friday evening in an unpopulated area of Tehama County, the National Weather Service said in a Saturday morning news release.
According to the weather agency, a trained spotter and footage from an ALERTCalifornia PG&E camera in the area, a brief tornado took place about eight miles northeast of Dairyville between approximately 5:18 p.m. and 5:21 p.m. Friday.
No damage or injuries occurred in the brief wind event that traveled approximately 0.8 miles, meteorologist Courtney Carpenter said in a news release.
“All evidence including radars were viewed and evaluated in coordination with the Tehama County Sheriff and Office of Emergency Services,” Carpenter said. “There will not be a damage survey team sent to the area, as there is no damage to survey.”
How strong was it?
The tornado’s wind peak and rating are both unknown, the news release said.
“The preliminary determination is that this was an EF-U (unknown) tornado that touched down for approximately 3 minutes with a path length of approximately 0.8 miles and unknown peak wind,” Carpenter said.
An EF-U rating indicates that a tornado is given a rating of unknown strength, the weather agency said.
“This is because tornadoes are rated based on the damage that they cause,” Carpenter said in the news release. “If no damage is caused by a tornado, then it cannot be assigned a rating, and the rating of EF-U is used. This is the preliminary rating. If additional damage reports are received, further evaluation will take place.”
What was detected on radar? Was there a tornado warning?
The weather service issued a tornado warning at 5:22 p.m., the news release said.
“The radar at the time indicated a storm cell with weak rotation present,” Carpenter said in the news release. “This is not uncommon and the vast majority of weakly rotating storms do not produce a tornado.”
Was this the first tornado reported in 2025?
Preliminary reports suggest this is the first tornado confirmed in the United States in 2025, according to the weather service.
However, the weather service said, official national storm data will not be finalized until February.
Are tornadoes rare in California?
Contrary to popular belief, California averages nine tornadoes a year, making them relatively common in the state, the weather agency said.
Most California tornadoes are weak, rated EF-U to EF-1, and occur in the Central Valley, according to the weather service.
This story was originally published January 4, 2025 at 10:55 AM.
