Wild video shows a tornado making landfall near downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, after another crazy day of weather across California that killed five people in the Bay Area after a “bomb cyclone” hit, the one Couch forced to fly through the sky in San Francisco.
The twister landed in suburban Los Angeles on Wednesday, ripping off sections of the canopy from a number of commercial buildings and sending the debris skyward and over a city block, injuring one person.
The National Weather Service said it had dispatched teams to assess damage in Montebello and the southern Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria, where another possible twister struck Tuesday.
According to preliminary information, it’s “very likely” that the apparent funnel cloud spotted a few miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles was a tornado, said Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld.
“This is definitely not typical for the region,” said Schönfeld.
Wild video shows a tornado making landfall near downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday after another crazy day of weather across California
One person was injured and taken to a hospital, said Alex Gillman, a city spokesman. He didn’t know the severity of the injury.
At least five buildings and a small number of vehicles were damaged, but a full assessment is ongoing, Gillman said. The damage spread over more than a city block, but the extent of the perimeter has yet to be determined. Gas and electricity to the area have been shut off, he said.
The rare and violent weather came amid a powerful late-season Pacific storm that brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated California. Two people died Tuesday as the storm battered the San Francisco Bay Area with strong gusts and downpours.
Schoenfeld said more unstable weather is possible in Southern California through the afternoon.
“All the ingredients for more possible events like the one we’ve seen before are there,” she said.
The last time the Los Angeles Weather Service office sent out tornado assessment teams was in 2016 near Fillmore in Ventura County, where it was determined a small cyclone had made landfall, Schoenfeld said.
A radar-based tornado warning was also issued Tuesday night for the Point Mugu area west of Malibu. The warning was later lifted and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office tweeted there was no evidence a tornado had landed.
The storm weakened from north to south in California as it advanced inland via the Southwest, the Four Corners region and the central and southern Rocky Mountains, the National Weather Service said. On Tuesday, some residents of north-central Arizona were told to prepare to evacuate due to rising water levels in rivers and basins.
Two victims must be rescued after a large eucalyptus tree falls on their pickup truck
Firefighters and paramedics help repair an overturned truck on the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge
Helena Zappelli surveys the damage to her yard and vehicle after a large tree fell on Humboldt Street in Santa Rosa on Tuesday March 21, 2023
A man takes his dog out in a canoe in the flood after the dam failed in Manteca, San Joaquin County
Tuesday’s wind and rain chaos from San Francisco Bay south to Monterey Bay was caused by an extraordinary drop in air pressure over the eastern Pacific that forecasters have dubbed “explosive cyclogenesis.”
‘Wow. Even by the standards of what has turned out to be one of our most extraordinary winter seasons in a long time, yesterday stands out…” the Bay Area Weather Bureau wrote.
Trees and power lines were blown down. The windows of two high-rise buildings in San Francisco were blown out, NBC Bay Area reported. Ferry service was suspended because conditions were too rough. Three barges have come loose and a bridge damaged.
At least five were killed in the area, one died in a gated community 25 miles east of San Francisco when a tree fell on a moving car.
Another driver was killed after a fallen tree crushed a work truck 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 at Main Street and Folsom Street in San Francisco, KRON reported.
An Amtrak commuter train carrying 55 passengers crashed into a fallen tree and derailed near the East Bay village of Porta Costa. The train remained upright and no one was injured, Amtrak and fire department officials said.
The Twister landed in the Los Angeles suburb of Montebello on Wednesday, ripping off sections of the roofing from a number of commercial buildings and throwing the debris into the sky and over 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 the dam failed in Manteca, San Joaquin County, as atmospheric river storms hit California
A fallen tree is seen on Dolores Street in San Francisco
In the Bay Area community of Portola Valley, a man driving a sewage truck was killed when a tree fell on the vehicle, the California Highway Patrol said. And in the township of Rossmoor, a driver was injured and a passenger died after a large tree fell on a car, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said.
In the Monterey Bay area, Santa Cruz County was blasted with gusts of up to 80 miles per hour at midday. Along the coast of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, sea foam blew across the streets like large snowflakes.
Wind gusts reached 76 miles per hour in Santa Cruz’s mountain communities, including Boulder Creek.
Local resident Frank Kuhr waited for hours at a downtown supermarket Tuesday afternoon for crews to remove large redwoods blocking a freeway. “Trees have fallen everywhere,” said Kuhr. “The wind was unbelievable. Branches flew through the air and people could just hear trees falling and cracking.’
“This is a dork,” said Kuhr.
The storms hit the area’s famous Alcatraz Island, causing the site to close on Wednesday
Several downed trees caused problems with vehicles in the Nob Hill area of San Francisco
A photo taken with a drone shows a sinkhole filled with water as a storm drain collapsed during last week’s storm at the Coyote Village condo complex in La Habra, east of Los Angeles
The 1.4 inches of rain that fell on downtown Los Angeles broke the March 21 record of 1.34 inches, set in 1893.
Around 121,000 customers were without power across the state as of early Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us.
The National Weather Service said Tuesday’s storm, which struck on the first full day of spring after the state’s exceptional winter, is a Pacific low-pressure system that has been interacting with California’s 12th atmospheric flow since late December.
California’s unexpected wet weather siege after years of drought also included snow storms in February, fueled by arctic air.
The storms have caused flooding and piled mountains with so much snow that roofs have caved in and crews have struggled to keep highways avalanche-free.
Amber Balog surveys the damage to a friend’s vehicle Tuesday, March 21, 2023 after a saturated and windblown limb fell on Monte Verde Drive in Santa Rosa
Damage is visible on the 3rd Street Bridge just outside Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants
Mammoth Mountain Resort in the eastern Sierra Nevada announced it will remain open for skiing and snowboarding through at least the end of July.
With 634 inches of snowfall at the main lodge this season, it was probably just a storm away from beating the all-time record of 668 inches set in the 2010-2011 season.
The weather came after a “bomb cyclone” hit San Francisco Tuesday night in the latest severe storm to hit the west coast, ravaging the region with gale force winds and torrential rain.
The weather front is the latest major storm to hit the region this year, where it sent flash flooding and violent gusts of wind across the Golden State.
At least one person died after gusts – which reached up to 120 km/h – knocked down a tree near the Portolla Valley. Meanwhile, more than 230,000 residents across California have lost power from the storm.
Glass reportedly fell from a high-rise in San Francisco after the storm hit late afternoon, but no injuries were reported in the incident.
Heavy winds have caused numerous downed trees in the San Francisco area, killing at least one person and injuring two others
Deep flooding has thrown southern California into chaos as another storm hits it
Evacuation orders were issued in Santa Cruz County on Tuesday night as torrential rain battered the coastal region, just weeks after rapid flooding wreaked havoc in Los Angeles.
Two people were seriously injured in San Francisco after being hit by a falling tree when at least one person was killed in a similar incident in San Mateo County.
California Patrol Officer David LaRock told Weather.com of the fatal incident, “Due to high winds, a large tree fell on the vehicle as it was traveling eastbound. When emergency services arrived, they had to clear several large branches to get to the vehicle.”
Shocking weather images showed a sharp turn in the storm’s trajectory as it made landfall, indicating the strong winds that drove it to shore.
ABC7 meteorologist Drew Tuma tweeted that he saw winds drop “from 60mph to dead calm in an instant” after being in the eye of the storm.
Flights from San Francisco International Airport have been temporarily grounded amid the storms, with about 300 flights delayed and over 20 cancelled.
Other nearby airports, including Oakland and San Jose Mineta International Airports, also reported some weather-related disruptions.
Footage from the area shows numerous cars damaged by fallen trees and rising floodwaters sweeping the streets.
Fast-moving waters in Oakland, which have seen significant destruction in recent weeks after an overflowing levee washed out the region, also caused part of a dock to become detached and carried numerous boats away.
And in the Mission Bay area, an industrial barge was dumped and smashed into a bridge, prompting authorities to urge residents to avoid the area.
The travel chaos has also hit the streets of Southern California, leaving motorists trapped after downed power lines hit Woodside.
Residents are being asked to seek shelter locally as many of the wires are still live, and local authorities said it’s unclear when PG&E will restore the broken lines.
High winds canceled all Bay Area ferry services Tuesday afternoon, with officials noting the disruption was due to “ocean-like waves.”
Just weeks after the region was swept away by torrential rain, another storm hit California. Pictured: An aerial view of submerged homes in Manteca, San Joaquin County
Deep flooding in California’s San Joaquin County has caused severe damage just weeks after more storms swept through the state
In San Joaquin County, about two hours south of San Francisco, shocking images have shown deep water flooding completely inundating streets.
The region has already been hit by an evacuation order after residents were inundated with the rising waters.
San Francisco Fire Department officials have advised the public to take extra precautions as the storm continues to batter the city.
“Right now there are a lot of road closures all over San Francisco just because of fallen wires, downed trees and areas flooded,” SFFD spokesman Jonathan Baxter told SFGATE.
“Watch out for the severe storm sweeping through San Francisco”. Added Baxters.
“If you don’t need to be outside, consider other options. When you’re on the road, you must expect delays during your journey.’
A winter storm warning was issued Wednesday morning for the Greater Lake Tahoe area, where winds could gust up to 75 miles per hour.
Torrential rains hit the state as the Pineapple Express landed, putting 21 counties on a state of emergency
Hundreds of residents in Soquel, California, were stranded earlier this month when storm Pineapple Express battered the Santa Cruz Mountains, causing flash flooding to undermine a major road
The destruction comes just weeks after a devastating storm called the Pineapple Express wreaked havoc on the west coast.
Catastrophic flooding washed out the state as the storm, which was the third major landfall of the year, placed over 20 counties on a state of emergency.
About 17 million people in parts of California and Nevada were under flood watch, and the torrential rains saw more than an inch an hour in some places.
More than a dozen people died and many more were left stranded in the San Bernardino mountain range when historic amounts of snow hit the Golden State.
Monterey County was among the hardest-hit areas in the state as it fell earlier this month with up to 13 inches of rain.
Rain topped the 10-inch mark in several other regions, including Santa Cruz County, where a rain-filled creek destroyed part of Main Street in Soquel — a town of 10,000 — and isolated several neighborhoods.