OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A tornado near a central California shopping center swept away cars, uprooted trees and sent several people to the hospital. In San Francisco, authorities have issued a tornado warning for the first time.
Elsewhere in the US, severe weather hit areas in the US, with dangerous conditions including heavy snow in New York state, a major ice storm in the Midwestern states and severe weather warnings around Lake Tahoe.
The ice storm starting Friday evening created treacherous driving conditions in Iowa and eastern Nebraska on Friday and Saturday and led to temporary closures of Interstate 80 after scores of cars and trucks slid off the road. In New York State, more than 84 inches were reported near Orchard Park, which is often a landing site for lake-effect snow.
On Saturday, a tornado touched down near a shopping center in Scotts Valley, California, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of San Francisco, around 1:40 p.m. The tornado overturned cars and toppled trees and utility poles, the National Weather Service said. . Scotts Valley police said several people were injured and taken to hospitals.
Some trees fell on cars and streets and damaged roofs in San Francisco. The damage was assessed to determine if the city was indeed struck by a tornado, which had not occurred since 2005, according to the weather service.
Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the weather service’s office in Monterey, California, said the warning of a possible tornado in San Francisco was a first for the city, noting that an advanced alert was not issued until before the last tornado nearly struck twenty years ago.
“I suspect there was no clear signature on the radar for a warning in 2005,” said Gass, who was not there at the time.
The fast-moving storm prompted warnings for residents to take shelter, but few people have basements in the area.
“The most important thing we tell people in the city is to put as many walls between you and the outside world as possible,” said meteorologist Dalton Behringer.
According to the weather bureau, some Lake Tahoe ski resorts received more than a foot of snow, and the Mammoth Mountain resort south of Yosemite National Park recorded wind gusts of 111 miles per hour. in Reno, Nevada. Up to 91 centimeters of snow was forecast on the Sierra Nevada mountain peaks.
The Tahoe Live music festival at California’s Palisades Tahoe ski area was expected to go on as planned Saturday and Sunday despite a winter storm warning for the area. Lil Wayne was scheduled to perform Saturday night, with Diplo headlining Sunday, according to the festival’s website.
A winter storm warning was set to expire at 10 p.m. Saturday, but an avalanche warning remained in effect until the following night for elevations above 8,000 feet (about 2,400 meters) around Tahoe.
Interstate 80 was closed Saturday along an 80-mile stretch from Applegate, California, to the Nevada line just west of Reno. The California Highway Patrol reopened the road in the afternoon to passenger cars with chains or four-wheel drive and snow tires.
The severe weather in the Midwest resulted in at least one death. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Nebraska said a 57-year-old woman died after she lost control of her pickup on Highway 30 near Arlington and struck an oncoming truck. The other driver suffered minor injuries.
Businesses announced plans to open late Saturday as temperatures soared in the afternoon to melt ice in most places.
“Luckily some warmer air is coming in behind this to make it temporary,” said Dave Cousins, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Davenport, Iowa.
Tens of thousands of people in western Washington state lost electricity on Saturday as the system brought rain and gusty winds, local news media reported.
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Associated Press reporters Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco, Julie Walker in New York, Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed.