At least four people were injured after a storm swept through Northern California Saturday afternoon, according to local officials.
The twister flipped over several cars and brought down power lines in Scotts Valley, about 55 miles (89 km) south of San Francisco, police said.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said the tornado was rated as an EF1, one of the weakest ratings, and lasted about five minutes.
Elsewhere in the U.S., a blizzard moved into the midwestern states of Iowa and Nebraska, bringing heavy snow to upstate New York, and issuing severe weather warnings around Lake Tahoe spanning the states of California and Nevada. was given
In Nebraska, at least one person was killed in a crash on an icy road near Arlington. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said a 57-year-old woman lost control of her pickup truck and crashed into an oncoming vehicle.
A major highway between Iowa and Nebraska, Interstate 80, was closed as icy conditions caused vehicles to slide off the road. It has since reopened.
In upstate New York, people shoveled snow off their driveways, with more than 33 inches (83 cm) of snow reported near Orchard Park in Erie County.
To the west, in Nevada, up to 3 feet of snow was forecast in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Areas around Lake Tahoe also received snow, with some ski resorts seeing more than 1 foot.
Wind gusts of 112 mph were recorded at Mammoth Mountain Resort south of Yosemite National Park, the NWS said.
The storm touched down in California’s Scotts Valley at 13:39 local time (21:39 GMT) on Saturday, police said.
The local fire service said four people were injured and two of them were taken to hospital, according to the BBC’s US partner. CBS News Reported
Wind gusts reached about 90 mph, the NWS said.
The weather agency also said the twister was about 30 yards wide and traveled a quarter of a mile before subsiding.
Earlier on Saturday, a brief thunderstorm warning was issued to residents of downtown San Francisco and San Mateo County before 06:00 local time.
San Francisco last saw a tornado in 2005, though it came without a clear radar signature, so no warnings were issued in that case, NWS meteorologist Roger Glass told the AP news agency.
As of Sunday, more than 40,000 customers were still without power along the California coast, with Monterey County the hardest hit. According to the PowerOutage website.
San Francisco’s tornado alert came just over a week later in the city Saw the first tsunami warning.
A brief advisory was issued for northern California and southern Oregon after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the state’s north coast.
It was later towed away, and no one was injured.