California can’t seem to catch a break this year! From droughts to floods, the Golden State and Mother Nature are going through an especially rocky patch… but tornadoes in Gold Country?!
Believe it or not, the last days of March saw a handful of tornadoes touch down in Northern California, damaging as many as 20 homes, according to an
AP report. Thankfully, no injuries or displacements were reported, but residents are learning hard lessons about expecting the unexpected.
According to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, and their super-cool
maps, tornadoes are relatively uncommon along the West Coast. "The tornadoes which do occur,” explains a lead meteorologist from the Weather Channel in the report above, “are created by systems coming off the Pacific and are generally much weaker than those experienced by the Plains.”
While California’s twisters may not be the same caliber as those that plagued the Midwest last year, residents whose roofs and fences will have to be replaced—or those who watched barbeque grills and other debris rain down on their property!—are still feeling the shake-up of disaster narrowly avoided.
At the beginning of March, we re-posted an article from the archives--
“How to Prepare for a Tornado”--which includes a fantastic video tutorial series from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for preparedness “before,” “during,” and “after” tornado. The article also includes links to other helpful resources, like our blog post
“Tornado Preparedness” and FEMA’s
“Developing an Emergency Response Plan for Tornadoes.”
The lesson we keep learning over and over again is there’s no perfectly safe set of circumstances—no region and no season is free from the threat of natural disasters. However we may classify our risk, we’re all better off if we’re prepared.
--Stacey
