Ajit Karn
Los Angeles: Wednesday, a tornado tore through a city in southern California, ripping off the roofs of buildings and throwing cars all over the place. This made the state’s already crazy winter weather even more crazy.
The kind of wind that usually happens in the Midwest blew through the city of Montebello near Los Angeles. It broke windows and sent people running for cover.
One local business owner told KTLA, “I was driving when I saw this tornado in front of me. I had to back up to get away.”
“The tornado ripped off the roof of the building, broke all the windows on the cars, destroyed the cars, and made a mess of everything.”
Footage showed what looked like roofing material flying around above industrial buildings in the city, which is only a few miles (kilometers) from downtown Los Angeles.
After the storm, pictures taken from the air showed that several roofs had holes in them, pipes and installations were bent and broken, and cars seemed to have been pushed out of their parking spots.
The business owner said, “I saw cars just swerving through the streets, and it was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The National Weather Service said it was looking into the event, which it called “a weak tornado,” and another in Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara.
“On Tuesday evening, March 21, a weak, narrow tornado briefly touched down in the Sandpiper Village mobile home park in Carpinteria,” the NWS said.
“It broke about 25 mobile homes, and a few trees in the cemetery next to the mobile home park were damaged.”
The NWS says that tornadoes, which are columns of air that spin quickly and touch the ground, are the most violent storms in nature.
They can bring winds up to 480 kilometers per hour (300 miles per hour) and can tear through a neighborhood in a matter of seconds.
First estimates from the NWS say that the winds at these two events reached up to 85 miles per hour.
Still, meteorologist Daniel Swain said on Twitter that “this is a pretty big tornado by California standards” because it hit a populated area, caused damage, and may have hurt people.
‘Long haul’
The tornadoes happened at the end of a strong storm that ripped through California, knocking down trees and cutting off power to hundreds of thousands of people as it dumped heavy rain and snow.
Flood watches are still in effect for large parts of the state, and a large area of land in Tulare County is under water.
Carrie Monteiro, a spokeswoman for Tulare County’s Emergency Operations Center, told the Los Angeles Times that more than 700 buildings have been damaged.
Before anyone can be told it’s safe to go home, utility companies will have to check for damage to water, waste, and electrical systems.
She said, “It’s going to be a long haul here in Tulare County.”
In the last few months, the state has been hit by a dozen atmospheric rivers, which are long bands of wetness that come in from the Pacific Ocean.
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Rain and snow have dumped trillions of gallons (liters) of water on a part of the country that has been in a historic drought for decades.
Water managers say that even though local reservoirs look better than they have in years, things could change quickly if next winter is as dry as this one was.
Scientists say that climate change caused by humans makes extreme weather worse by making dry times even drier and wet times even wetter.
