Downtown San Francisco is experiencing the first tornado warning in recorded history

On By Littum



CNN
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For the first time in recorded history, downtown San Francisco was issued a tornado warning Saturday as severe storms swept through the city, just a week after a tsunami warning sparked widespread panic in the region.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management confirmed the tornado threat ended around 1 p.m. 6:14 a.m. PST after the storm moved northeast of the center.

“Now seek shelter in a basement or interior room on the bottom floor of a sturdy building. If you are outdoors, in a mobile, home or vehicle, move to the nearest larger shelter and protect yourself from debris, ” SDFEM urged residents in an earlier tweet.

The National Weather Service (NWS) also issued one flood advisory and strong wind warning, with sustained winds of up to 40 mph expected in areas along the coast. San Francisco Airport reported a gust of 72 knots (83 mph) at the time the storm passed. ONE video shared on Facebook shows extreme winds shaking palm trees in downtown San Francisco.

More than 10,000 people were without power in San Francisco from Saturday morning.

California experiences an average of nine tornadoes in a year. No tornado warnings had ever previously been recorded for downtown San Francisco, the NWS confirmed.

A week earlier, a tsunami warning was issued for the San Francisco Bay area and nearly 5 million people along parts of the northern California and Oregon coast after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of California on December 5. A strong earthquake 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 earthquakes trigger such warnings, as experts have little time to determine the immediate risk, and the result of a tsunami can be catastrophic.

The earthquake’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.