Tornado Reported In CA, 1st Tornado Warning Issued In San Francisco

CALIFORNIA — Hundreds of thousands lost power across northern California Saturday after a powerful atmospheric river slammed the state with heavy rains and damaging wind gusts.

Tornado warnings were issued across the region, including a rare warning issued for downtown San Francisco.

Experts confirmed a tornado touched down in Scotts Valley in the nearby Santa Cruz County around 1:40 p.m., the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office posted to X, formerly Twitter.

“Based on video, photos, firsthand accounts and radar signatures a tornado occurred,” the agency wrote.

The tornado overturned cars and damaged trees in the area, NWS said.

“Holy (expletive)! A tornado hit the Target parking lot about a half hour ago flipping multiple cars! We are in the Santa Cruz mountains and this is a first here,” one X user posted along with images of vehicles turned over in a parking lot.

Weather Nation shared a video recorded during the tornado to X.

“A tornado was captured on video in Scotts Valley, CA, near Santa Cruz. The powerful winds overturned cars, brought down power lines, and sent large tree branches crashing down as people drove through it,” the media outlet wrote.

An historic tornado warning — the first-ever for San Francisco — was even issued earlier in the day, at 5:51 a.m., the city’s Department of Emergency Management posted to X, formerly Twitter.

“Regardless of the final determination of what kind of storm it was, residents were understandably anxious to receive an alert about something we don’t associate with our region,” the department wrote. “Heightening the concern is the fact that this is the second WEA (Wireless Emergency Alert) in the past two weeks for hazards with low probability like tornados and tsunamis.”

A tsunami warning was issued for the area by the NWS last week after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake recorded off the coast, 45 miles southwest of Eureka. The tsunami warning covered a vast stretch of the Oregon and California coastline, including the Humboldt coast, San Francisco Bay and Peninsula.

The storm toppled some trees onto cars and streets and damaged some roofs in San Francisco, which has not seen a tornado since 2005, according to the NWS. The damage was being assessed to determine if there was indeed a tornado.

“This was the first ever warning for a possible tornado in San Francisco. I would guess there wasn’t a clear signature on radar for a warning in 2005,” said Roger Gass, a meteorologist in the Weather Service’s Monterey, California. He said he was not there in 2005.

The fast-moving storm prompted warnings for residents to take shelter, but few people have basements in the area.

“The biggest thing that we tell people in the city is to put as many walls between you and the outside as possible,” meteorologist Dalton Behringer said.

“Ultimately, we are trending toward more frequent and intense weather events in San Francisco and while WEAs are alarming, the National Weather Service only sends these alerts when there is a genuine possibility of a life safety hazard,” the DEM wrote in a post to X.

The department added, “In regards to today’s alert, we understand that many buildings in San Francisco do not have basements like other parts of the country where tornados are more common. In the event of a future tornado warning, if you don’t have a basement, an interior room away from windows on the lowest floor possible is the safest place to be.”

City crews are working Saturday afternoon into the evening to clean up the damage caused by the strong storm.

“The rains and high winds have subsided but our tree crews, who started early this morning are still on the job and will be going strong into the night, removing dangerous trees damaged in the storm,” San Francisco Public Works posted to X.

The department shared a video of crews working at 25th and Mission streets, which can be viewed here.

Around 129,000 people were still without power across northern California around 4 p.m., according to PowerOutage.us. Monterey County had the most outages with more than 36,000, while Marin County had nearly 14,000 outages and Santa Cruz around 15,000 outages. San Francisco County still had more than 1,800 outages.

Earlier in the day, more than 200,000 were without power, Fox Weather reported.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.