Survey Team Concludes it was a Tornado that Touched Down in Davis

On Saturday, September 28th, a Northern California community was taken by storm by the emergence of a “tornado” near Davis. The photos and videos of the weather phenomenon terrified residents and subsequently went viral:

As with anything that goes viral, the commenters came out in droves questioning whether it was an actual tornado or simply a big dust bowl.

“It’s a large dust devil it was a slow news day. Made me laugh when I saw it on the news,” wrote one skeptic.

“Tornados originate from a cloud. This started from the ground… Thus making it a dust devil,” wrote another.

Tornado outside Davis. Totally terrified me. I was heading back to Davis from Woodland #tornado #Davistornado pic.twitter.com/vfa5apMs3h

— Camille (@thedreadedheidi) September 29, 2019

But the question of whether it was an actual tornado has finally been answered when the National Weather Service informed the public that a survey team investigated the incident and confirmed it was a EF-0 tornado.

A survey team went out yesterday to take a closer look at the tornado that formed near Davis, CA, on Sept 28, 2019. It has been confirmed to be an EF-0 tornado that formed around 6:40 pm that evening. No damage was found or reported. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/N48D3Ac0sL

— NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) September 30, 2019

For anyone who read our initial article on the event, this is no surprise. When it occurred, UCLA Climate Scientist Daniel Swain predicted that it was actually more than just a landspout:

Update: maybe this was something more than a landspout after all. Regardless: a wild, rare, and unbelievably photogenic event in #Davis. https://t.co/F1wG8rCLeE #tornado #CAwx https://t.co/dINIn3T6wK

— Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) September 29, 2019

There you have it! We were all witnesses to a decent-sized tornado in NorCal! Since so many people in NorCal have tornadoes on the mind, the National Weather Service decided to issue some stats for California:

Got #tornadoes on the mind? 🌪️🤔🧠 We've got some #tornado statistics for northern #California for you! #cawx #norCal pic.twitter.com/S0wdg17dPi

— NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) September 30, 2019