San Francisco A New Tornado Alley. At Least For Today.

Storm damage in San Francisco Saturday, after
the city had its first-ever tornado warning.
Meteorologists are now investigating whether
a tornado actually touched down. Photo by
Richard Pena via Mission Local 

Even in December, I would never be all that surprised if a tornado hit somewhere in Oklahoma, or Alabama or Florida.  

But San Francisco?

The first-ever tornado warning that anyone's aware of was issued for San Francisco early this morning. 

As of early this evening, it's still not confirmed whether a tornado actually touched down in the city, but there is wind damage, and radar showed a classic tornado signature. 

The tornado warning was issued at 5:51 a.m. local time and expired about 25 minutes later. 

There's quite a bit of tree damage in Golden Gate Park, where some of the strongest rotation was detected on radar.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service office in Monterey, which covers San Francisco, plan to investigate the park and perhaps other sections of the city to determine whether it was a tornado or straight line winds that caused the damage. 

Winds reportedly gusted to 83 mph during the storm at San Francisco Airport.

Radar images Saturday morning  also indicated debris being lifted into the air and strong rotation in Davenport, California.  Davenport is along the California coast about 60 miles south of San Francisco.

Video showed either the same apparent tornado or a different one in Scotts Valley, California, about a dozen miles east of Davenport and just north of Santa Cruz, California. 

Although tornadoes have occurred near San Francisco in the past, none are known to have actually passed through the city. 

The possible tornadoes were part of a strong storm that slammed into northern California last night and today. A constellation of flood and coastal flood alerts, wind advisories and winter storm warnings were up for various parts of northern California.

A good two feet of snow was expected in parts of the Sierra Nevada range, and avalanches are likely in the back country.  Traffic was snarled Saturday in highways through the mountains.  

At this point, the storm that hit California today is not expected to become a major system as it crosses the United States