The National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office confirmed that an tornado passed through the Pico Rivera area near downtown earlier Thursday as a powerful storm system hits heavy rain and destructive winds in Southern California. The office classifies it as zero, which is the lowest level on the enhanced Fujita scale, which can reach up to five.
Although tornadoes are unusual for the region, they are not unheard of, especially this time of year.
“The Los Angeles Basin area tends to be magnets for tornadoes,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist at the NWS Los Angeles office. “I say March is a favorable month for them in that regard.”
The latest tornado was reported near downtown Los Angeles before Thursday in March 2023, when a powerful twister crossed Montebello, about eight miles east of downtown Los Angeles, destroying warehouses and nearby buildings. In March 1983, two tornadoes, one in downtown Los Angeles, and one in Pasadena caused widespread damage and a lot of damage, part of a storm system, killing at least nine people across the West Coast.
The tornado Thursday coincided with the early hours of Wednesday and Thursday entering Southern California’s storm system, releasing heavy rain, gusts, gusts of wind and prompting widespread weather alerts.
An 8.5-mile Pacific Coast Expressway between Malibu and Palisades was closed due to debris flow risks. The traffic and waterways burned by strong winds swell with the rain. High surfing consultations will be issued, and as beaches from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo County crash, the waves will be issued. Firefighters in the East Los Angeles community in Boyle Heights pulled a man out of the Los Angeles River shortly before 4 a.m.
Evacuation warnings were issued to communities near the ruins of January fires in Pacific Palisades, Silma, Hollywood, Hollywood, Mandeville Canyon, Malibu and Altadna, advising them to prepare to leave before the imminent danger. In the San Gabriel Valley, authorities firmly stand in North Sierra Madre, a foothills city with a population of about 11,000 near the Eton Fire Burn Scar, ordered residents to leave Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, the low-altitude areas of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties recorded up to three inches of rainfall in the foothills and hillsides. The storm was accompanied by strong winds, and gusts of more than 70 miles per hour were reported at some locations, destroying trees that damaged vehicles.
Meteorological services also issued multiple flash flood warnings throughout the night until Thursday morning urging residents in vulnerable areas including Malibu, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Pasadena to move to higher ground immediately.
By Thursday morning, the biggest rain had shifted from Los Angeles County to Orange County, although showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected to last until Thursday afternoon. Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the Los Angeles Meteorological Bureau Office, warned that the risks of flash torrents and debris flows will persist.
“Thunderstorms can have flash flood effects, gusts and small hail,” Ms. Schoenfeld said. “But overall, the main part of the storm has left Los Angeles County.”
Thousands of people in Los Angeles County were driven to their homes by wildfires two months ago. The storm system this week is the second in a month as traumatized fire survivors, state and local authorities are eager to prevent the fire from peeling soil into mud and debris and slide out of the rest of the houses, roads, roads, buildings and buildings. A similar storm in mid-February caused several small debris flows, with at least twelve close calls, including calls from Los Angeles firefighters whose vehicles were swept through roads by mudslides near Malibu and into the Pacific Ocean.
The county, city search and rescue team and Swiftwater rescue team are committed to supporting 12 flood-related incidents. One incident included a LAFD member who was swept through the ocean near Malibu but had a positive reaction to prevent significant damage or injury.
By the weekend, forecasters predict dryness and warm conditions to return to the area.
Shawn Hubler and Mayor of Orlando Contribution report.
