After a small tornado hit the South Natomas area around midnight on Wednesday, it posed the question of how often do tornadoes happen in the Sacramento Valley?
Well, the valley typically gets roughly a few per year and the ABC10 Weather team has heard that it could be as many as four or less on average. The tornadoes are usually EF0's, which are considered minor, that have winds between 65 to 85 mph. They can occasionally reach above 100 mph.
The tornadoes most often occur in the spring and fall and come from thunderstorms that disperse heavy rain, lightning or hail. They occur in the late afternoon and in rare cases at night.
The last one the valley experienced was in April last year in the Waterford area near Modesto, according to the ABC10 Weather team. Like the one on Wednesday night, it was also an EF0, but it did damage a school.
The Sacramento valley does have a tornado hot spot in the local area. There is also another hot spot in Southern California as the large waterspouts come ashore and become weaker tornadoes.