Downtown San Francisco was placed under a tornado warning on Saturday as severe storms battered the city. This came just a week after a tsunami warning sparked widespread panic in the area.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management reported that the tornado threat ended at 6:14 a.m. PST when the storm moved northeast of the downtown area.
"Take shelter now in a basement or an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. If you are outdoors, in a mobile, home, or in a vehicle, move to the closest substantial shelter and protect yourself from debris," SFDEM urged residents in a tweet.
The National Weather Service (NWS) also issued a flood advisory and high wind warning, forecasting sustained winds of up to 40 mph along the coast. San Francisco Airport reported a wind gust of 72 knots (83 mph) as the storm swept through. A video shared on Facebook captured intense winds whipping through downtown San Francisco, shaking palm trees.
As of Saturday morning, more than 10,000 residents were without power in the city.
While California averages nine tornadoes annually, the NWS confirmed this was the first recorded tornado warning for downtown San Francisco.
While the most intense part of the system has moved on, isolated severe thunderstorms may still develop across parts of the Bay Area through the morning, the National Weather Service reported.
One week earlier, a tsunami warning was issued for the San Francisco Bay Area and nearly 5 million residents along the Northern California and Oregon coastlines after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the California coast on December 5. Such powerful quakes are relatively rare, with only about 15 occurring globally each year, officials noted.
Coastal communities narrowly avoided disaster, as the National Tsunami Warning Center canceled the alert after some residents evacuated their homes. Most significant offshore earthquakes trigger tsunami warnings due to the limited time experts have to assess the risk, and the consequences of a tsunami can be catastrophic.
The earthquake's epicenter was located in the Pacific Ocean, south of Eureka, California, according to the US Geological Survey. Eureka, the largest coastal city between San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, sits about 300 miles northwest of Sacramento.
