As if Southern California hadn’t already seen enough wild weather since the start of the year, a tornado touched down in Montebello late Wednesday morning, damaging buildings.
The twister was first spotted around 11:30 a.m. in the area of South Vail Street and Washington Boulevard. Video captured by several KTLA viewers shows intense rotation as the tornado tore the roof from a large commercial building and sent debris flying.
A National Weather Service damage survey team was dispatched to Montebello, a city just east of downtown Los Angeles, and confirmed it was, in fact, an EF1 tornado that touched down.
Tornadoes are classified using an EF (Enhanced Fujita) Scale.
An EF0 is a tornado with three-second wind gusts of 65 to 85 miles per hour. An EF1 has winds of 86-110 mph. The most violent tornadoes, EF4 and EF5s, have wind speeds ranging from 166 to over 200 mph.