A tornado touched down in Kings County Saturday afternoon, the second tornado in two days to hit central California.
The tornado touched down on the southern edge of Corcoran around 4:37 p.m., said meteorologist Carlos Molina of the National Weather Service's Hanford office. The tornado moved east and then dissipated as it reached U.S. Route 99, he said.
The tornado comes less than a day after a funnel cloud briefly touched down in Madera County, about 30 minutes north of Fresno. ABC7 reported that the tornado touched down near an elementary school, forcing students to take shelter in the cafeteria.
“This is the first time I've seen two tornadoes in a row,” Molina said, noting that humidity in the area due to a winter storm had brought ideal conditions for such an event.
“Typically, in central California, we would normally have one, possibly two tornadoes in our area between March and April,” he said.
The back-to-back tornadoes come less than a month after two tornadoes touched down within a minute of each other along the San Luis Obispo County coast.
Officials said at the time they were the first tornadoes to hit San Luis Obispo County since 2004 and the strongest since before 1950 with winds of 95 mph.
Elsewhere in the state, a blizzard hit the Sierra Nevada on Saturday with gusts up to 190 mph and nearly 2 feet of snow in some places. A 75-mile stretch of Interstate 80 was closed and ski resorts were forced to close amid the dangerous conditions.
