Wild video shows tornado touching down near LA damaging multiple buildings - ... trends now
A wild video shows a tornado touching down near downtown Los Angeles Wednesday after another crazy weather day across California that saw five killed in the Bay Area after a 'bomb cyclone' hit that forced a couch to fly through the skies in San Francisco.
The twister touched down in a Los Angeles suburb on Wednesday, ripping pieces of roofing off a line of commercial buildings and sending the debris twisting into the sky and across a city block, injuring one person.
The National Weather Service said it sent teams to assess damage in Montebello and the southern Santa Barbara County city of Carpinteria, where another possible twister hit on Tuesday.
According to preliminary information, it's 'very possible' that the apparent funnel cloud spotted a few miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles was a tornado, said meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld with the weather service.
'It's definitely not something that's common for the region,' Schoenfeld said.
A wild video shows a tornado touching down near downtown Los Angeles Wednesday after another crazy weather day across California
One person was injured and was taken to a hospital, said Alex Gillman, a city spokesman. He didn't know the severity of the injury.
At least five structures and a small number of vehicles were damaged, but a full assessment was still underway, Gillman said. Damage spread over more than one city block but the extent of the perimeter was still being determined. Gas and power to the area has been shut off, he said.
The rare and violent weather came amid a strong late-season Pacific storm that brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated California. Two people died Tuesday as the storm raked the San Francisco Bay Area with powerful gusts and downpours.
Schoenfeld said more unstable weather was possible through the afternoon in Southern California.
'All the ingredients are there for more possible events like the one we saw earlier,' she said.
The last time the weather service's Los Angeles office sent out tornado assessment teams was 2016 near Fillmore in Ventura County, where it was determined that a small twister had touched down, Schoenfeld said.
A tornado warning based on radar also was issued Tuesday night for the Point Mugu area west of Malibu. The warning was later canceled and the Ventura County Sheriff´s Office tweeted there was no evidence a tornado touched down.
The storm was tapering off in California from north to south while pushing inland across the Southwest, the Four Corners region and the central and southern Rockies, the National Weather Service said. On Tuesday, some residents of north-central Arizona were told to prepare to evacuate because of rising water levels in rivers and basins.
Two victims have to be extricated after a large eucalyptus tree fell on their pick-up truck
Firefighters and EMT help to fix an overturned big rig truck on the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge
Helena Zappelli surveys the damage to her yard and vehicle after a large tree fell over, Tuesday, March 21, 2023, on Humboldt Street in Santa Rosa
A man takes his dog out with a canoe in flood after levee fails in Manteca of San Joaquin County
The wind and rain mayhem from San Francisco Bay south to Monterey Bay on Tuesday was caused by an extraordinary drop in barometric pressure over the eastern Pacific that meteorologists described as 'explosive cyclogenesis.'
'Wow. Even by the standards of what has turned out to be one of our most extraordinary winter seasons in a very long time, yesterday ... stands out,' the Bay Area weather office wrote.
Trees and power lines were blown down. Windows were blown out from two San Francisco high-rises, NBC Bay Area reported. Ferry service was disrupted because conditions were too rough. Three barges got loose and damaged a bridge.
At least five were killed in the region, one dying in a gated community 25 miles east of San Francisco when a tree fell on a moving car.
Another driver was killed after a toppled tree crushed a work van in San Mateo County, while another lost his life after a tree fell on him in Oakland.
Two others were killed in storm-related incidents, according to ABC News.
Another video showed a couch flying through the sky in San Francisco at Main Street and Folsom Street, KRON reported.
An Amtrak commuter train carrying 55 passengers struck a downed tree and derailed near the East Bay village of Porta Costa. The train remained upright and nobody was injured, Amtrak and fire officials said.
The twister touched down in a Los Angeles suburb of Montebello on Wednesday, ripping pieces of roofing off a line of commercial buildings and sending the debris twisting into the sky and across a city block, injuring one person
Another video showed a couch flying through the sky in San Francisco at Main Street and Folsom Street
Buildings and vehicles are partially submerged after levee fails in Manteca of San Joaquin County as atmospheric river storms hit California
Dolores Street in San Francisco sees a fallen tree
In the Bay Area community of Portola Valley, a man driving a sewer truck was killed when a tree fell onto the vehicle, the California Highway Patrol said. And in the community of Rossmoor, a driver was injured and a passenger died after a large tree fell onto a car, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said.
In the Monterey Bay region, Santa Cruz County was blasted with gusts up to 80 mph at midday. Along the coastline of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, ocean foam blew across the roadways like large snowflakes.
Wind gusts reached 76 mph in Santa Cruz mountain communities, including Boulder Creek.
Resident Frank Kuhr waited for hours Tuesday afternoon at a downtown supermarket for crews to remove large redwoods that blocked a highway. 'Trees are down everywhere,' Kuhr said. 'The wind has been unbelievable. Branches were flying through the air, and folks could hear trees just falling and cracking.'
'This one´s a doozy,' Kuhr said.
The storms impacted the area's famous Alcatraz Island, causing the site to be closed Wednesday
Multiple fallen trees led to issues for vehicles in the Nob Hill area of San Francisco
A photograph taken with a drone shows a water filled sinkhole as a storm drain collapsed during last weeks storm at the Coyote Village condo complex in La Habra, East of Los Angeles
The 1.4 inch of rain that fell on downtown
