2/09/09 DISC: CA

[Jason Harris]

Ha, ha, how wild is that? Despite the slight risk today and the mod-to-even-high risk tomorrow (or later today technically) in the plains, the only tornado reported so far was in CA!

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1932 10 S ATWATER MERCED CA 3721 12060 OAKLAND FLIGHT SERVICE RELAYED A PILOT REPORT OF A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN. TORNADO WAS LIFTING AND DISSIPATING. (HNX)

Anybody happen to be on that storm today among the CA community? Maybe some radar catches or cloud pics? What else did that storm do?

[Jason Harris]

Actually, looking at these pics/video it hardly counts. . . not even a cumulonimbus, maybe barely a congestus, but you do see a funnel:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=6649540

http://videos.mercedsunstar.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=3094486

and this pilot made a report:

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A pilot observed the tornado touch down in a field, approximately 10 miles south of Castle Airport, and reported the sighting to the Federal Aviation Administration office in Oakland, Sanger said. The Merced County Sheriff's Department said no damages or injuries have been reported.
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http://www.mercedsunstar.com/108/story/681299.html#

[Randall Cooper]

Merced is actually my home town, lol. I grew up there from a baby til i was 19. Wild! lol.

[Jason Branz]

Saw that report about an hour after it happened. Small tornadoes like that aren't unusual with these cold upper storms that move in during the winter. That storm, if you could call it that, was on the leading edge of a larger area of rain moving through the San Joaquin Valley, about 100 miles south of where I'm at. The synoptic conditions for CA tornadoes are pretty similar to the typical cold-core setup in the Plains.