Two-minute twister tears a nearly mile-long path just outside of Modesto
A brief tornado touched down north of Modesto on Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service in Sacramento has confirmed.
A news release says the EF-0 twister struck 2 miles northeast of Salida at about 2:13 p.m. and was on the ground for 0.9 miles for two minutes. Its estimated maximum wind speed was 76 mph and its width was about 70 yards.
The weather service says the tornado moved through several orchards and three properties. Dozens of almond trees were uprooted.
“I was watching when suddenly there was a blast and my window exploded. Wind rushed in and I went to look outside. I saw my boat being whipped around and it crashed into my RV, and I looked up and the sky was filled with stuff flying all around. It was so loud.”
That’s the recollection of 81-year-old Walter Roger Cole, who was at his residence on the 2200 block of Kiernan Avenue when a funnel cloud touched down and caused damage to his and other adjacent properties. Though it happened on April Fool’s Day, the event was no laughing matter. “It was only a few minutes, but it was scary,” said Cole.
Walking around his property just north of Modesto, Cole assessed the damage, which included uprooted trees, broken tree limbs, torn-off pieces of metal, a damaged antenna and debris everywhere. In his side yard was half of the roof from the adjacent unoccupied property and torn-up roof pieces all over his lawn. Parts of the roof also landed on the grounds of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, which also suffered minor damage.
“Our shed is gone,” said church member Gary Wheeler. “It’s in pieces all over the place.” Wheeler and his wife, Victoria Caldwell, were on the grounds with other church volunteers cleaning up and assessing the damage. A part of the metal roof was peeled up but remained on the building, while pieces of trees and other items were scattered around.
Caldwell said she was in the area before the event and recalls seeing the weather get more aggressive as the sky darkened.
Modesto resident Ashley Munsinger captured the funnel cloud on her phone as she was picking up her children from school near Oakdale Road and Sylvan Avenue around 2:20 p.m. She posted the videos to her Facebook page and other Modesto incident pages.
Wild weather lasted most of the day in the region, with heavy rainfall and hail in some areas. California has averaged nine tornadoes a year, the weather service release said. They are rare in this region but tornado warnings have been issued in recent years and a few made landfall. Most recently in Oakdale, a tornado carried a horse stable from one pasture to another in January 2023.
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 3:02 PM.
