Tornado touches down in outskirts of Clovis, with wind speeds reaching up to 85 mph

A tornado touched down in Fresno County just outside of Clovis on Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.

The tornado touched down at around 3:20 p.m. in the area of Herndon Avenue and Academy Avenue, according to Meteorologist Brian Ochs.

Ochs said the tornado touched down briefly, rotating debris and causing slight damage to a nearby outbuilding with wind speeds reaching between 65 to 85 miles per hour.

He also noted that the tornado was the weakest of tornado categories, declared a EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. No one was reported injured.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, tornadoes form from super cell thunderstorms with a rotating up draft of air in the center creating a vortex, with enough pressure from cold air and warm air rotating in the center a funnel cloud is formed creating a tornado.

This story was originally published January 17, 2019 at 8:23 PM with the headline "Tornado touches down in outskirts of Clovis, with wind speeds reaching up to 85 mph."