Tornado Hits Santa Cruz County And Wakes Up The Bay

If you live in San Francisco or cities immediately nearby, you probably were awakened at 5AM by something that has never happened in the history of San Francisco, a fucking tornado warning. Tornadoes are rare on the West Coast, while they have happened, California is more of a shake and bake state rather than a suck and blow state. We’re known for burning alive in mansions on hillsides and the ground collapsing from under our feet than we are for our trailer parks getting thrown half a mile from the uncut funnel-shaped cloud cock of God. 

The warning I received in Oakland which woke me up notified me that San Francisco was about to get a free viewing of the movie Twisters, similar to the tsunami warning, nothing happened, and the Bay Area collectively shrugged. However, this wasn’t the case in Santa Cruz County. Scotts Valley, a town just a few miles north of Santa Cruz proper, got hit by an EF 1 tornado and did considerable damage to the small redwood tree rich area. While an EF 1 is considered a small tornado, it still left six people injured and considerable damage to power lines, cars, and other property in the area. 

This is especially concerning to meteorologists, as tornadoes are an extreme rarity in California, and when they do occur, they typically touchdown in the Central Valley between Sacramento in the north and Bakersfield to the South. 

Coastal California is typically spared from such extreme weather events, but they have happened. 

In 2023, two tornadoes hit Compton, California within a duration of eleven minutes, and residents produced several videos showcasing the extreme weather event that caused damage to industrial facilities. Not long after the Compton incident, in 2024, Southern California was visited by two more tornadoes in San Luis Obispo County, where power lines and a greenhouse were damaged. 

Naturally, it may appear natural to assume climate change is to blame, but a connection between tornadoes and other extreme weather events in California to climate change is uncertain. However, tornadoes do appear to be happening with more regularity in the Golden State. 

The question is: Why? 

Unfortunately, no one really seems to have a concrete answer, but it may mean California has to do more in order to prepare for these kinds of natural disasters. In states where tornadoes are common, many homes feature basements where residents can go to wait out the storm. Most homes in California do not have basements, which begs the question: if a major tornado did hit California, especially a densely populated urban area like the San Francisco Bay Area’s urban core or Los Angeles, what the fuck would we do? 

Probably nothing. This is America, after all. 

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