The San Francisco Bay Area Tornadoes – January 11, 1951

Eyewitnesses watched a waterspout come ashore at Dillon Beach. Here, the funnel toppled many trees; one fell onto a home and crushed a garage and a new truck inside. It then skipped east-northeast through rural Marin County, where no damage was reported. The tornado may have dissipated and a new one formed at Two Rock in Sonoma County; since we cannot confirm this, we opted to list it as one twister.

At Two Rock, the funnel crested a hill and slashed a 100-yard wide swath across the Peter Christensen Ranch located on Bloomfield Road (now called Valley Ford Road), about 8 miles northwest of Petaluma, at 6:50 am PST. Mr. and Mrs. Jack Carson were asleep in the second story of their house. The home collapsed, and the couple awoke on the first floor with slight injuries. Trees surrounding their residence were stripped of all foliage and limbs, possibly even slightly debarked.

Mr. and Mrs. Christensen were also asleep in their newly built ranch-style house. Mrs. Christennsen was quoted in a January 12, 1951 copy of The Press Democrat as saying she “thought it was an atomic bomb. We didn’t know that ours was the only house struck in this neighborhood. It was awful.” The Christensen residence was still standing but had many broken windows and pieces of the roof blown off. 2×4’s peppered the exterior of the home. The tornado reportedly plucked a linen closet door from its hinges, carried it 15 feet down the hallway, through the bedroom, out the window, and it was not found. Elsewhere on the ranch, a 100-foot-long brooder house was swept away. Two garages, a barn, and a granary were also leveled.

The tornado whirled across the road and slammed into the Martin Iversen Farm. It missed the home but swept away 25 small chicken houses. They simply vanished, leaving only bare spots in the grass. It moved across Pepper and Mercham Roads, downing many trees and power lines.

Veering more toward the northeast, the funnel moved into Cotati. Numerous trees were twisted off in town about 3 to 4 feet above the ground. A large chicken house was leveled at the John Skelly Farm, killing one cow and 1500 chicks. This was the last damage reported before the vortex abruptly ended.

This tornado is not officially documented by the SPC/NCDC, nor is it listed in Significant Tornadoes. However, based on what happened at the Christensen Ranch, we estimate that it may have reached the F/EF2 range.