Downtown San Francisco experiences first tornado warning in recorded history
By Alaa Elassar and Allison Chinchar, CNN
(CNN) — For the first time in recorded history, downtown San Francisco was included in a tornado warning on Saturday as severe storms swept through the city, just one week after a tsunami warning triggered widespread panic in the region.
The National Weather Service in the San Francisco Bay Area did not find evidence of a tornado after a survey. The damage instead was consistent with straight line winds up to 80 mph “across the Richmond District and Golden Gate Park areas.”
Although there was rotation on radar at the time to trigger the warning, the damage does not suggest a tornado touchdown. National Weather Service meteorologists document the severity and direction in which damage falls to make this determination.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management had confirmed the tornado threat ended around 6:14 a.m. PST after the storm moved northeast of downtown.
The National Weather Service had also issued a flood advisory and high wind warning, with sustained winds of up to 40 mph expected in areas along the coast. San Francisco Airport reported a wind gust of 72 knots (83 mph) at the time the storm passed by. Videos show extreme winds shaking palm trees in San Francisco and downed trees and power lines.
The threat continued as more severe storms fired up through the afternoon. An EF1 tornado with peak winds of 90 mph occurred just before 2 p.m. in Scotts Valley, California, roughly 67 miles south of San Francisco, according to the National Weather Service.
Five people were injured in Scotts Valley, with three transported to medical centers for “evaluation and treatment,” police told CNN on Saturday, adding there were no deaths or life-threatening injuries reported.
Authorities are still assessing the storm’s impact in the area, with many vehicles overturned, properties damaged and debris on roadways.
EF1 tornadoes have wind gusts that range between 86 and 110 mph. With similar wind speeds to weak hurricanes, these tornadoes can push moving cars off course, shift mobile homes from their foundations and remove roof surfaces.
“Based on video, photos, firsthand accounts, and radar signatures a tornado occurred ~1:40 PM,” the agency said.
The Scotts Valley Police Department posted on its Facebook page asking drivers to avoid Mount Hermon Drive because multiple cars were thrown off the road near the Target store after the tornado passed through the area.
California averages nine tornadoes in a year, according to the Storm Prediction Center. No tornado warnings had ever previously been recorded for downtown San Francisco, the National Weather Service confirmed.
One week prior, a tsunami warning was issued for the San Francisco Bay area and nearly 5 million people along parts of the Northern California and Oregon coastlines after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the California coast on December 5. A quake that strong is relatively rare, with officials reporting only about 15 around the world each year.
Coastal communities avoided potential disaster and the warning was canceled by the National Tsunami Warning Center after some residents fled their homes. Most significant off-coast quakes prompt such warnings, as experts have little time to determine the immediate risk, and the result of a tsunami could be disastrous.
The quake’s epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean south of Eureka, California, the US Geological Survey said. Eureka is the largest coastal city between San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, and about 300 miles northwest of Sacramento.
CNN’s Sarah Dewberry and Elisa Raffa contributed to this report
The-CNN-Wire
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