List of California tornadoes

Tornadogenesis can occur because of a supercell thunderstorm, a waterspout, a landspout, or a fire whirl, and can happen in any month of the year.

In July 2004, a twister touched down in Sequoia National Park at an altitude of around 12,156 ft (3,705 m), making it the highest elevation for a confirmed tornado in the United States.

In the United States, tornadoes develop less frequently west of the Rocky Mountains as compared to the rest of the continent.

[5] On rare occasion, tornadoes can originate from supercells, which are more similar in nature to twisters across the Midwestern United States.

[6] Because of their irregular and short-lived nature, the San Diego National Weather Service considers it "nearly impossible to forecast a Southern California tornado before it touches down."

[5] The location of the mountains relative to the coastline creates the favorable conditions for tornadogenesis in the Los Angeles Area.

[2] In the Central Valley, tornadoes can form when the winds from a trough are perpendicular to the coastal range of mountains, bringing onshore moisture from the San Francisco area to the Sierra Nevadas.

There have never been any recorded tornadoes in Alpine, Amador, Lake, Modoc, Mono, Napa, Plumas, Sierra, or Trinity counties.

Photograph of toppled crossing signals
Damage caused by the 1983 Los Angeles tornado
Map of some tornado locations in California
Map of California showing the location of tornadoes between 1962 and 1983
Satellite image of a large storm system
Infrared satellite imagery of the weather system that produced seven tornadoes across the state on November 9, 1982
Map of the 1983 South Central Los Angeles tornado's path
Track of the South Central Los Angeles tornado of March 1, 1983
Radar image of a storm
Reflectivity scan of an F1 tornado over Lemoore Naval Air Station in November 1996
Photograph of a funnel cloud
The EF0 tornado near Roseville on March 26, 2014
Satellite image of a hurricane
Satellite image of Hurricane Dolores, which spawned tornadoes in the southern California desert
The 2018 Carr Fire tornado that developed within the Carr Fire in Redding