Two weak tornadoes damaged homes and trees near Compton in Los Angeles County on Thursday, marking the third and fourth tornadoes to hit the LA Basin since the start of 2023, the National Weather Service said.
The first twister briefly touched down about 2 miles outside Compton at 8:45 a.m., causing some damage to buildings, cars and trees at the intersection of Avalon Boulevard and East Walnut Street, the weather service said. The second tornado formed at Greenleaf Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue at 8:56 a.m., knocking over a power line, tearing off a tarp at a plant nursery, causing roof damage to one home, downing tree limbs and tearing off the siding of several homes.
“They were both pretty close to each other,” said David Sweet, a forecaster with the weather service’s LA office.
Tornado severity is measured on the Enhanced Fujita, or EF, scale, which runs from 0 to 5. Thursday’s tornadoes were both EF0, the weakest rating, with winds of 65 to 85 mph. The weather service determined the wind speeds reached about 75 mph in the first tornado and 65 mph in the second.
The unusual tornado activity came as an unseasonably cold storm coated Southern California mountains with snow and dumped heavy rain elsewhere as spring struggled to shake the grip of an exceptionally wet winter. More than 4 inches of new snow was reported on Mount Wilson, 15 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, the weather service said. Winter weather advisories were posted for mountain ranges across three counties. Forecasters said the highest peaks could end up with 14 inches.
Tornadoes are unusual in Los Angeles County but not entirely out of the norm. Most notably, seven tornadoes were reported in one day on Nov. 9, 1982. “Yes, it’s not something we normally think about here but this isn’t something new for our area,” the weather service said in a Tweet.
This year, a tornado ripped off parts of a roof in the city of Montebello in Los Angeles County in March; a weak twister knocked over some trees in La Mirada in February, according to KTLA.
South of Los Angeles, a tornado was reported in Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County in March.
“You have to have the right kind of weather pattern for these things to happen,” Sweet said. “You need a relatively cold winter storm, and we’ve had a lot of those this year with storms dropping straight down from the Gulf of Alaska.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
