{"id":25640,"date":"2020-02-09T00:00:59","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/?p=25640"},"modified":"2021-01-11T19:35:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T03:35:49","slug":"february-9-2020-tornado-on-san-nicolas-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/2020\/02\/09\/february-9-2020-tornado-on-san-nicolas-island\/","title":{"rendered":"February 9, 2020 Tornado on San Nicolas Island!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Wow — who would have thought! \u00a0An upper low was dropping south through SoCal today, with some showers and thunderstorms around during early-to-mid afternoon. \u00a0Some strong cells dumped 1-2 inches in local areas near Sierra Madre. \u00a0A semi-continuous line of activity was from about Monte Nido (south of Calabasas) through North Hollywood and Sierra Madre. \u00a0This line moved southwestward and fizzled rather quickly.<\/p>\n

I was out on San Nicolas Island, and watching radar off and on. \u00a0Towards 4 p.m., some cells developed rather quickly just north and northwest of the island. \u00a0I just figured that these were garden-variety showers, and continued to watch the Kings and Rangers. \u00a0I was killing time prior to a very short shift at the airport here, beginning at 4:45 p.m. \u00a0 \u00a0Some light rain was hitting the windows of the lobby area where I was watching the game, and I was glad that the island was getting a little something. \u00a0I decided to head back to the room at 4:15 p.m. to put my laptop back and to get ready for my “shift.” \u00a0I glanced out a lobby window to the north, and right there, about a mile or two away, right in the middle of the window, was a funnel cloud! \u00a0I kind of freaked out and my mind went from 0 to 100 in 1\/8 of a second. \u00a0I wasn’t 100 percent sure that it was a legitimate tornado-like funnel cloud, but it sure looked good! \u00a0I made a quick decision to run to the room (just 8 seconds away) to grab my camera. \u00a0I did have my cell phone right then and there, but if this was going to be really good, I needed my real camera.<\/p>\n

The wide 21mm lens was on my camera. \u00a0That was fine. \u00a0I ran to the top of an outside stairwell on the northeastern side of the building, and looked to the north. \u00a0It was still there! \u00a0The funnel cloud was a good 3\/4 of the way to the ground, so it was almost certainly a waterspout in progress. \u00a0I was not able to see the ocean from here, though, with part of Nicktown in the way. \u00a0The town is about 450 feet above sea level, and the terrain drops quickly to the shore on the north edge of the town.<\/p>\n

I took a few shots with the wide-angle lens, but the funnel cloud was a bit too distant for such a wide angle. \u00a0Another island denizen named Bill had heard me running through the hallway and joined me on the stairwell to view the spectacle. \u00a0I asked him to take the camera and to keep shooting stills while I ran back to the room for the 70-200mm zoom lens! \u00a0This task took about a minute, and I was able to get a few quality zoom shots when I got back to the top of the stairs. \u00a0This all occurred from about 4:15 to 4:17 p.m. PST.<\/p>\n

The funnel looked to be dissipating quite a bit, but it was getting a little closer. \u00a0With the camera and the long lens, I started running towards the north to try to get a good view over the ocean of this thing. \u00a0I needed to know if there was an awesome swirl on the water or not! \u00a0Well, I ran for maybe 45 seconds and got maybe 2\/3 of the way to where I needed to be with the view. \u00a0But then the funnel started to look good again, and it was now over land and just on the other side of the little town, no more than a quarter mile away! \u00a0The lens that was on now was too “zoomy!” \u00a0But I took a couple of shots anyway at 70mm (the final pic below). \u00a0 A brief gust of wind came through as the funnel cloud quickly moved to the south and seemingly weakened again. \u00a0It looked like the show was over (time was now 4:20 p.m.), and I went back to my building, retrieved my wide-angle lens from Bill, and went to my room to let the NWS and the Navy forecasters know what was going on out here. \u00a0A roll of thunder came out of the west, and soon I was waiting at the curb for my ride to the airport.<\/p>\n

I spoke with Bill again at dinner, and he got some fabulous iPhone pics of the tornado as it moved very close to Nicktown! \u00a0I should have stayed where he was instead of trying to run to the cliff. \u00a0I had told him at the time of the tornado that there might be more funnel clouds with these storm cells nearby. \u00a0He said that he watched ANOTHER tornado form (this is while I am in my room) nearby, to the northwest, and this one was much wider and darker and just above the ground with white swirly things going around! \u00a0And I missed that — ugh! \u00a0To make matters worse, he said that he just watched that one through the window screen and didn’t get any pictures of it. \u00a0Man…<\/p>\n

This was my first California tornado, my first tornado or waterspout that I have seen from the island (though I might have seen a distant one five years ago—I wasn’t sure at the time), and it was my first February tornado. \u00a0As far as I know, there was no damage, though Bill said that the second one that he saw looked strong enough to do some significant damage.<\/p>\n

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