A strong thunderstorm birthed a rare tornado on Friday evening near Paynes Creek in Tehama County, close to the Shasta County border, according to meteorologists.

Scientists will study video and weather information where the twister touched down in the wilderness, about 8 miles northeast of Dairyville and 10 miles east of Cottonwood, the National Weather Service said.

The tornado developed between 5:18 and 5:21 p.m., prompting the weather service to issue a tornado warning for both counties by 5:22 p.m. Reports came to the agency almost immediately from a weather “spotter,” and webcams caught the event as it happened, said meteorologist Johnnie Powell at the weather service’s Sacramento branch.

As of 8: 45 p.m., there were no reports the twister injured anyone, or that it damaged any homes or businesses, according to the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office and Office of Emergency Services.

The North State has the dubious honor of having the first tornado of 2025 in California, possibly in the whole country, Powell said.

It was also the latest of at least 12 tornadoes spotted in Tehama County in 76 years, according to weather experts.

Here’s what we know about Friday’s tornado, and other North State twisters.

How a tornado grew over Tehama County

The thunderstorm that brought hail and heavy rain to the northern Sacramento Valley Friday evening, also triggered the twister, Powell said.

Tornadoes form when air, blowing in different directions, rises up in a thunderstorm and begins to spin, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The storm dissipated late Friday evening, Powell said, and the Redding area should be mostly dry this weekend and next week, with sunny skies.

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How big and fast was the tornado?

Meteorologists have yet to learn how strong Friday’s tornado was, and how fast the wind was, Powell said.

The weather service could announce those answers as soon as Saturday, but first scientists need to look at the extent of the damage in daylight, Powell said: Are there overturned trees? What does the tornado’s path on the ground look like? Those things will give scientists the clues they need to come up with those answers.

“Even in Kansas, you have to wait” for tornado details, Powell said.

How many tornadoes formed over Northern California?

A tornado forming over the North State is a rare event, but not unheard of.

Tehama County had the most tornadoes — a total of 11 twisters — between 1950 and 2024, according to Golden Gate Weather Services consulting firm. Two of those tornadoes formed at the same time of year: Jan. 4, 2021. The most recent tornado reported by Golden Gate was on April 25, 2021.

All three twisters in 2021 were very weak (EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale). That means the tornadoes’ winds ranged between 65-85 mph, according to the weather service. At those speeds, EF0 tornadoes may knock a few shingles off a roof, damage gutters and push loose items like lawn furniture around. Compare that to the strongest tornadoes (EF5), with winds moving at more than 200 mph.

Read more: ‘The set up was just right’ for Shasta County funnel cloud

During the same 75-year period, one tornado was spotted in Siskiyou County and four in Lassen, but none spun their way into Shasta or Trinity counties, Golden Gate reported.

The county with the most tornadoes sightings (49) between 1950 to 2024 is also one of the most densely populated. It was Los Angeles County.

Please refresh your browser for the latest radar loop.

Where to read more about tornadoes in California

To learn more about tornadoes, see the weather service’s tornado information website at weather.gov/ffc/torntext and UCAR’s tornado website at scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/storms/how-tornadoes-form.

Go to Golden Gate Weather’s website to read a history of known tornadoes in California ggweather.com/ca_tornado.

Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.

(KRON) — California is seeing a rise in cases of whooping cough, a highly contagious bacterial disease that can cause severe illness, state health officials said Friday. Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is especially harmful to infants, according to the California Department of Public Health.

The CDPH is urging all Californians, especially those who are pregnant or provide care to infants, to be up to date on their Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccine.

Dr. Tomas Aragon, CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer, explained, “Since the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, many practices that had lowered instances of whooping cough are no longer in place, and we’re seeing the disease return to pre-pandemic levels.”

People who are vaccinated against whooping cough are protected against severe illness and complications due to whooping cough. Complications causing apnea — dangerous pauses in breathing — and can be fatal for babies, according to CDPH.

“More than 2,000 cases of whooping cough were reported statewide between January and October 2024. Sixty-two of those cases were infants less than four months of age who were hospitalized, including one infant who tragically died,” state health officials wrote.

People with whooping cough have severe coughing attacks that can last for months.

The CDPH said vaccination is recommended for all:  

• Pregnant people between 27 and 36 weeks of pregnancy, even if they have received Tdap in the past.
• Adults, every 10 years.
• Adolescents aged 11 or 12 years (Tdap vaccine is also required for 7th grade advancement in California).
• Infants and young children receive their own whooping cough (DTaP) vaccines starting at 2 months through 4-6 years of age.

California lawmakers are proposing steps to protect K-12 students and families from mass deportations — although the real value of those proposals may be symbolic.

A pair of bills in the Legislature — AB 49 and SB 48 — would keep federal agents from detaining undocumented students or their families on or near school property without a warrant. The bills are a response to President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to deport undocumented immigrants, a move which could have major consequences for schools in California, which funds its schools based on attendance and where 12% of students have at least one undocumented parent.

Both bills would make it harder and more time-consuming for agents to enter schools or day care centers. But they can only delay, not stop, arrests. 

“In no way can these bills override federal law,” said Kevin Johnson, a law professor at UC Davis. “But the bills respond to a great concern in the community that it’s not safe to take your children to school. … I can’t emphasize enough how important this is, how vulnerable undocumented immigrants feel right now.”

AB 49, proposed by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Torrance, would require immigration agents to obtain written permission from the superintendent before coming onto school property. It also bars agents from being in rooms where children are present. SB 48, introduced by Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Democrat from Long Beach, would prohibit local police from cooperating with federal agents — such as assisting in arrests or providing information about families’ immigration status — within one mile of a school. It also bars schools from sharing student and family information with federal authorities. 

School districts have also doubled down on their efforts to protect students and families. Los Angeles Unified has partnered with legal aid organizations to assist families and instructed schools not to ask students about their immigration status. San Francisco Unified has similar policies.

“(San Francisco Unified) is a safe haven for all students regardless of citizenship status,” Superintendent Maria Su wrote to the community after the November election. “SFUSD restates our position that all students have the right to attend school regardless of their immigration status or that of their family members.”

Schools as safe havens

Schools have long been safe havens for immigrant students. Under a 1982 Supreme Court ruling, public schools must enroll all students regardless of their immigration status and can’t charge tuition to students who aren’t legal residents. And since 2011, federal guidelines discourage agents from making immigration arrests at schools, hospitals, churches, courthouses and other “sensitive locations.”

But Trump said he plans to eliminate the “sensitive locations” guidelines, and the conservative Heritage Foundation, which published the right-leaning Project 2025 manifesto, is encouraging states to charge tuition to undocumented K-12 students. That could set up the possible overturn of the Supreme Court decision guaranteeing access to school for undocumented students. The foundation’s rationale is that government agencies such as schools are already overburdened and need to prioritize services for U.S. citizens.

“The (Biden) administration’s new version of America is nothing more than an open-border welfare state,” Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, wrote. “No country can sustain or survive such a vision.”

Muratsuchi, chair of the Assembly Education Committee, said he was inspired to author AB 49 just after the election, when he listened to the concerns of immigrant students in the political science class he teaches at El Camino Community College in Torrance. 

“It became clear there was more and more fear among my students, not only for themselves but for their families. The fear of families being torn apart is very real,” Muratuschi said. “We want to send a strong message to our immigrant students that we’re going to do everything we can to protect them.”

‘Too scared to speak up’

For most undocumented families, deportation would mean a plunging into poverty and in many cases, violence. Nahomi, a high school senior in Fresno County whom CalMatters is identifying by her middle name because of her immigration status, described the threat of deportation as “a major worry for my family and I. Our lives could change completely in a blink of an eye.”

Nahomi and her parents arrived in California in 2011 from the city of Culiacan in Sinaloa, Mexico, an area plagued by widespread violence. They initially planned to stay until Sinaloa became safer, but once they settled in the Central Valley they decided the risks of returning outweighed the risk of deportation, so they stayed. Nahomi’s father works in construction and her mother is a homemaker, raising Nahomi and her younger sister.

While she and her family fear deportation, Nahomi is not afraid to attend school. She said schools can help families know their rights and help children feel safe.

“I feel very welcomed and safe there,” she said. “It is a very diverse high school and I just feel like any other student. … (But) a lot of these families are probably too scared to speak up about doubts they might have.”

Politically unpopular?

Patricia Gándara, an education professor and co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, said the risk of federal agents arresting students at schools is probably small. It’s unclear how many children in K-12 schools are undocumented, but it’s probably a relatively small number, she said. In any case, immigration enforcement that affects children almost always sparks public outcry from both parties, she said. 

“Some people might say they’re anti-immigrant, but it’s another thing entirely when the family up the street, whom they’ve known for 20 years, suddenly gets deported, or your kid’s best friend gets deported,” said Gandara, who’s studied the topic extensively. “It’s politically very unpopular.”

Still, the proposed bills could send a powerful message that schools are safe places, she said. Immigration crackdowns can have a significant impact on student attendance, a Stanford study found, which can lead to less funding for schools, particularly low-income schools that enroll large numbers of immigrant children. 

Immigration crackdowns can also lead to an increase in bullying, anxiety and general uncertainty on campus, not just for immigrant children but for everyone, Gándara said. Teachers, in particular, experience high levels of stress when their students’ safety is endangered, she said. 

Schools can’t rely solely on state laws to protect immigrant families, though. They should partner with local nonprofits to provide legal services and other support to families who need assistance. 

“Schools are one of the last places immigrant families feel safe,” Gandara said. “But as soon as (federal agents) move into schools, they’re not so safe any more. These bills say, ‘We’re not going to sit back and let this happen. Not all of government is against you.”

California ‘one of the best places to be’

Both bills are awaiting hearings in the Legislature. Tammy Lin, supervising attorney with the University of San Diego Immigration Clinic, expects California to continue to take steps to protect undocumented families, but political conflicts will be inevitable.

The incoming Trump administration is likely to battle California and other left-leaning states over immigration matters. Even within California, conflicts are likely to erupt between state leaders and those in more conservative regions, or even between agencies in the same area. In San Diego County, for example, the Board of Supervisors ordered the sheriff’s office to not notify federal immigration officers when it releases suspected undocumented inmates from jail, but the sheriff refused to comply. 

Lin also said she wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an attempt to overturn the Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing education to undocumented children, potentially paving the way for other immigrants’ rights to be reversed. 

“It’s a slippery slope,” Lin said. “Immigrants know this, which is why there’s immense fear and uncertainty right now. But bills like these show that California is still one of the best places you can be.”

Suriyah Jones, a member of the CalMatters Youth Journalism Initiative, contributed to this story.