A tornado touched down in Los Angeles County early Thursday morning as a severe rainstorm battered Southern California, according to meteorologists. The National Weather Service confirmed that between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. local time, an EF1 tornado struck Pico Rivera, California, located about 12 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The tornado lasted for two minutes, causing damage to homes and cars with wind speeds reaching 85 mph. Multiple trees were snapped in the area, as reported by the weather service. Video footage captured crews working to repair the aftermath of the weather event on Thursday.
This tornado occurred amidst heavy downpours affecting coastal Southern California, prompting the weather service to issue warnings of potential flash flooding in the region through the night. The agency also cautioned about powerful wind gusts of 40 to 70 mph in combination with heavy snow, creating hazardous travel conditions in various areas.
While tornadoes are not common in California, the National Weather Service notes that they are not extremely rare either. Typically, tornadoes in the state are small, weak, and short-lived, similar to the one that occurred on Thursday. Instances of severe F3 strength tornadoes are exceptionally uncommon, with no documented events of tornadoes of greater intensity reported in the state.
In recent history, an EF1 tornado hit Montebello east of Los Angeles last March, resulting in one injury and damage to 17 structures. Another EF1 tornado struck Scotts Valley, a small town 30 miles south of San Jose, in December.
This article has been updated to include a video and was written by Anthony Robledo, a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. For more information, you can contact him at arobledo@usatoday.com and follow him on Twitter @anthonyarobledo.
