SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The country’s first tornado of 2025 did not occur in Alabama, Louisiana or the country’s famous tornado alley across the Plains, but rather hit Northern California on Friday.

A significant storm system expected to bring more than a foot of snow to parts of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys was responsible for isolated thunderstorms moving southwest to northeast across a rural stretch of the Golden State.

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Sacramento determined that there was enough rotation in one of the storm cells to issue a tornado warning and advise residents in the affected area to seek adequate shelter and stay away from windows.

Only after the warning was issued did meteorologists monitor the apparent tornado with a camera designed to monitor the area not for severe weather but for wildfires and smoke.

PG&E, the state’s largest utility, sponsors hundreds of wildfire cameras across northern and central California that are occasionally used to monitor wildlife, capture shooting stars and now, it seems, tornadoes.

Despite the sighting, NWS meteorologists said they received no reports of damage, which was not entirely unexpected given the rural nature of portions of Tehama and Shasta counties. They later released a statement confirming that the tornado lasted three minutes and had an estimated trajectory of about 1.3 kilometers. However, due to the tornado’s remote location and lack of damage to investigate, they would not dispatch a storm survey team and would leave the tornado with a rating of EF-Unknown.

PG&E EXPANDS WILDFIRE DETECTION NETWORK WITH DOZENS OF CAMERAS

According to statistics from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, there are typically fewer than a dozen tornadoes in California each year, and they generally fall on the weaker end of the Enhanced Fujita Wind Scale.

Tornadoes can occur in the state in any month, but are more common in the spring and fall.

Since 1950, fewer than 500 tornadoes have been reported in the Golden State, resulting in injuries but no fatalities.

The last tornado to hit the state was an EF-1 that flipped vehicles and damaged businesses in Scotts Valley in Santa Cruz County in December.

There were several injuries during this event, but all were not considered life-threatening, despite there being no advance warning for the severe storm.

Watch: Tornado overturns cars, damages businesses in Northern California

The tornado was among at least 1,735 tornadoes that occurred nationwide in 2024, according to SPC data.

The total is more than 40% higher than the typical number of tornadoes that occur in an average year in the United States

The SPC noted that preliminary counts for last year are still ongoing, but 2024 is expected to be the second busiest year on record.

The record for most tornadoes in a year was set in 2004 with 1,817 tornadoes.

The storm system that produced Friday’s tornado could lead to more rotating supercells along the Gulf Coast late this weekend and early next week, as instability is expected to be enough to cause severe thunderstorms on the southern side of a wintry chaos that is the northern plains plague the country.

Original source of the article: California’s wildfire warning camera captures video of the country’s first tornado of 2025