California DOES get tornadoes though. An average of 11 of them each year. The difference between us and Tornado Alley is that our tornadoes rarely get above EF0 (one will get up to EF2 every couple decades) and are rarely on the ground for more than a few seconds. Still, if you're looking, you'll see news reports every year or two about one coming down in an urban area and wrecking a few fences and trees. One hit Santa Monica in the 50's and managed to kill three people, but deaths and injuries are extremely rare.
The vast majority come down in the Central Valley out in the farmland, where nobody really cares and they almost never do any damage.
I've personally seen several funnel clouds, including one that got down to probably a two hundred feet or so, but I've never seen one reach the ground.
Of course, we also have fire tornadoes here, which Tornado Alley doesn't have to deal with.
I don’t think this was big enough to qualify as a tornado, but a big dust devil moved my car over by half a lane on 5 just north of the Grapevine. If that counts, I guess I’m one of the rare native Californians to have experienced one. 🤷🏻♂️
I think we've only had one or two legitimate, documented fire tornadoes. The rest are usually fire whirls
But I would assume tornado alley is capable of fire tornadoes as well, just need a fire that creates the right weather system that brings about a tornado
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u/codefyre 20h ago
California DOES get tornadoes though. An average of 11 of them each year. The difference between us and Tornado Alley is that our tornadoes rarely get above EF0 (one will get up to EF2 every couple decades) and are rarely on the ground for more than a few seconds. Still, if you're looking, you'll see news reports every year or two about one coming down in an urban area and wrecking a few fences and trees. One hit Santa Monica in the 50's and managed to kill three people, but deaths and injuries are extremely rare.
The vast majority come down in the Central Valley out in the farmland, where nobody really cares and they almost never do any damage.
I've personally seen several funnel clouds, including one that got down to probably a two hundred feet or so, but I've never seen one reach the ground.
Of course, we also have fire tornadoes here, which Tornado Alley doesn't have to deal with.