EF1 tornado rips through Clovis property, damages barn, knocks out power

A tornado tore across a Clovis property off Highway 168, ripping apart a horse barn, toppling trees and knocking out power lines in one of the most unusual weather damage scenes Fresno County has seen this spring.

Don Wright said he was asleep when the storm hit Tuesday evening and woke to what sounded "like a freight train." When he stepped outside, he found mangled sheet metal, scattered debris and a barn that had been lifted, thrown through the air and dropped yards away from the home.

A tree fell onto the roof while Wright’s mother was inside, but Wright said she and everyone else on the property got out safely. The family’s two horses also survived unharmed, though shaken by the storm. By the time cleanup began, PG&E and fire crews were on scene after several power lines came down, leaving the property without electricity.

Video taken near Academy Avenue showed a dark funnel cloud carving a path of destruction as it moved through the area. A local storm report from the National Weather Service said the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado, a rating that can indicate wind speeds up to about 110 miles per hour.

The storm came after the National Weather Service office in Hanford issued a tornado warning at 2:37 p.m. Tuesday for south-central Madera County and northwestern Fresno County. A separate warning bulletin at 2:19 p.m. said a confirmed tornado was located over Biola and was moving northeast at 15 mph toward Fresno. The warning told people flying debris would be dangerous and warned that mobile homes, roofs, windows and vehicles could be damaged or destroyed. Schools in the area sheltered in place during the warning.

The Clovis damage stands out against the region’s long history of sparse tornado activity. National Weather Service Hanford climatology says the first confirmed tornado in its seven-county warning area was recorded on May 17, 1949, and only 89 confirmed tornadoes had been logged through July 1, 2014. Most were weak F0 or EF0 events, and only two were rated F2 or EF2.

Clovis has seen this before, but rarely. A documented F0 tornado on January 21, 1964 damaged several homes. Wright, who said he has lived in Clovis for nearly four decades, said he had never seen anything like Tuesday’s storm. With debris removal, repairs and insurance questions ahead, the family is now dealing with the kind of damage Fresno County residents usually associate with far more tornado-prone parts of the country.