A tornado hits a city in California, and an ice storm hits the Midwest
Kyiv • UNN
An EF1 tornado struck northern California, injuring 4 people and damaging cars. Other US states were also affected by the storm, causing heavy snowfall and one death in Nebraska.
At least four people were injured after a tornado struck northern California in the United States on Saturday afternoon, according to local authorities, UNN reports citing the BBC.
Details
According to police, the tornado overturned several cars and hit power lines in Scotts Valley, 89 kilometers south of San Francisco.
The National Weather Service (NWS) reported that the tornado was classified as an EF1, one of the weakest, and that it lasted about five minutes.
Elsewhere in the US, an ice storm hit the Midwestern states of Iowa and Nebraska, heavy snowfall hit upstate New York, and a severe weather warning was issued for the Lake Tahoe area, which covers California and Nevada.
In Nebraska, at least one person was killed in an accident on an icy road near Arlington. The Washington County Sheriff's Office reported that a 57-year-old woman lost control of her pickup truck and crashed into an oncoming car.
A major highway between Iowa and Nebraska, Interstate 80, was closed as cars were driving off the road due to ice. It has since reopened.
In upstate New York, people were clearing snow on their driveways, with more than 83 cm of snow recorded near Orchard Park in Erie County.
In the west, in Nevada, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, up to 91 cm of snow was forecast.
Snow also hit the areas around Lake Tahoe, and some ski resorts received more than 30 cm of snow.
According to the NWS, a wind gust of more than 180 km per hour was recorded at the Mammoth Mountain resort south of Yosemite National Park.
A tornado struck California's Scotts Valley at 13:39 local time (21:39 GMT) on Saturday, police said.
The local fire department reported that four people were injured, two of whom were taken to the hospital, the BBC's American partner CBS News reported.
Earlier on Saturday, residents of downtown San Francisco and San Mateo County were issued a short tornado warning shortly before 06:00 local time.
The last tornado in San Francisco was in 2005, although it was not accompanied by clear radar signs, so no warning was issued in that case, NWS meteorologist Roger Glass told the AP news agency.
As of Sunday, more than 40 ,000 customers across the California coast were still without power, with Monterey County the hardest hit, according to the PowerOutage website.
Addendum
The tornado warning for San Francisco came just a week after the city received its first tsunami warning. A brief warning was issued for northern California and southern Oregon after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the state's northern coast. It was later canceled and no injuries were reported.
