We saw both the rain come down and a rocket from Vandenberg SFB go up this past week in the San Joaquin Valley. First, let’s get to the rain.
Our weather turned active again this week as low pressure from the Pacific approached the California coastline. It’s a Spring storm, so it’s not loaded with moisture, and our rain totals will reflect that. But it does have some energy with it, and when you combine that with the relatively strong April sun, thunderstorms have been the result.
Strong thunderstorms erupted in the Valley Thursday evening, mainly from around Fresno northward. In western Fresno County near Firebaugh, a supercell showed enough rotation that a Tornado Warning was issued. Doppler radar showed rotation within the cloud, but fortunately that rotation never touched down and became an actual tornado – it remained a funnel cloud. This looks like it was a ‘Cold Air Funnel’, which are actually not uncommon in California. Just about all storms have colder air aloft, but when a storm has much colder air above, it becomes very unstable – and that can trigger thunderstorms and these ‘Cold Air Funnels’. The good news is that these Cold Air Funnels rarely touch ground and become a Tornado. But they sure can be a scary sight!…