A confirmed tornado touched down in Fresno and Madera counties on Tuesday, April 22, 2026, turning a forecast that many Central Valley residents might have dismissed into a ground-level reality. Law enforcement officers watched the funnel make contact with the surface, and the National Weather Service office in Hanford responded with a tornado warning that used the agency’s highest-confidence language: “Law enforcement confirmed tornado” and “Tornado observed.”
The twister is part of a broader storm system pushing through California’s interior this week, and forecasters say the threat is not finished. The NWS Hanford office has flagged a marginal risk for severe weather across the San Joaquin Valley through Tuesday evening. In its Day 1 convective outlook issued Tuesday morning, the Storm Prediction Center placed tornado probabilities at 2 to 4 percent within 25 miles of any given point in the affected zone, with severe wind probabilities running between 5 and 14 percent within the same radius.
Those numbers may look small on paper. In a region where tornadoes are genuinely uncommon, they are enough to trigger formal warnings, activate emergency protocols, and send agricultural workers scanning flat horizons for rotation.
A storm system with statewide reach
The instability is not confined to a single county. The NWS Sacramento office has reported scattered thunderstorm chances with point probabilities of 20 to 40 percent across interior Northern California on Tuesday. At higher Sierra elevations, a winter storm warning is in effect, with heavy snow expected above 5,000 feet. That pairing of convective activity on the valley floor and accumulating snow at altitude points to a deep, energetic trough moving through the state…