Sacramento Tornadoes
~2200 UTC 21 February 2005

Two Tornadic Storms in Northern Portions of Sacramento Metro Area: Possible Supercells*

Website Updated 3/24/05

Webpage and Meteorological Analysis (When it Appears): by John Monteverdi, SFSU with help from Greg Stumpf, NSSL

Email: montever@sfsu.edu

(Please note-- Picture Attributions Will be Placed Here.
I am putting these pictures up in the interest of the scientific curiosity. Pictures
appeared originally in Sacramento Bee)

*Note: Much of the storm structure associated with both the Southport-to-Woodland and Natomas tornadic storms seems supercellular . However, the meteorology on this day suggests that the storms would be low-topped. An analysis of the radar data might substantiate this and COULD also substantiate that the tornadoes formed from descending mesocyclones (although sometimes this is difficult to prove for low-topped storms distant from the radar since the lowest angle tilt could overshoot the lowest 5000 feet of the echo if the storm is only 30 miles distant). On the other hand, supercells can intercept low level vorticity and tilt/stretch it to form non-supercell tornadoes too. I am working with Greg Stumpf of the NSSL on resolving these issues.

Page 1  |  Page 2 (Including Some Weather Maps)
362-tornado5_432x288

Natomas Storm: View shows bell shaped lowering, with tornado on occluded portion (RFD between). This picture pretty diagnostically indicates that the storm was a supercell just north of Sacramento Executive Airport (Matthew Adams)

 849-tornado20_432x288

Natomas Storm: (Francisco X Daniel)

 396-tornado19_288x432

Natomas Storm: (William Tunick)

Large Tornado associated with Southport-to-Woodland storm.

Attribution Coming for Images to Right and Left

Natomas Storm:

823-tornado18_432x324

Natomas Storm: In this picture, there are apparent low to midlevel inflow bands and a "beaver" inflow tail, also suggesting a supercell. (Antonio Morabito)

 736-0222bromby

Natomas Storm: Walt Bromby

 521-tornado24_432x323

Natomas Storm: Ricky Hunter
203-tornado15_289x432

Natomas Storm: Similar to the picture above, with inflow bands. (Kathy Rokusek)

 196-bigtwist

South Notomas

(Mark Lawton)

 Natomas Storm: 120-tornado14_432x324

Great shot showing forming tornado with RFD slot, on wall cloud base curving
back to inflow tail.

(Laurence Kerckhoff)
897-tornado25_432x293

This is an excellent view of what appears to be a supercell tornado in Southport-to-Woodland storm. (Rob Cernohlavek)

 360-tornado3_432x324

Natomas Storm: Andrew Fullerton and Kathleen Klein

 23-tornado1_432x324

Natomas Storm: (Nirmal Sandhar)
226-tornado13_432x324

Stuart Hooper

 47-tornado2_432x324

Kathleen Klein

 118-0222meagher

Tina Meagher
906-tornado12_432x324

Natomas Storm: Steve Hope

 391-tornado7_432x324

Natomas Storm: Clark Crebar

 471-tornado11_432x290

Natomas Storm: Lucas Perretti
826-tornado21_432x324

Great shot of debris in North Natomas.

Ritesh Patel

 436-tornado22_432x324

Natomas Storm: Peter Folks

 463-img_tornado1_0221

Natomas Storm: Peter Folks
460-tornado23_432x324

Natomas Storm: Brian and Pam Viray

 790-img_tornado2

Natomas Storm: Will Soszka

 195-bigfunnel

Natomas Storm: Michael Butler
749-organizing5

Natomas Storm: Russ Heimerich

 279-tornado_arden

Natomas Storm: Craig and Peggy Seher

 308-DSC02179

Natomas Storm: Phil and Laura Cox
222-tornado27_432x261

Natomas Storm: Robert Tassinari

 598-funnelclouds001

Natomas Storm: Brenda Smith