Tornado in Santa Rosa

Tornadoes in California are very rare, but it looks like there was a small one up north near where my daughter lives:

A fierce gust of wind Friday morning in Santa Rosa that ripped off a large section of tin roof at a landscaping business and caused other damage was likely a small tornado, a federal weather forecaster said.

The wind hit Sequoia Landscape Materials, on Pacific Avenue and King Street, and nearby houses just before 9:15 a.m. with what witnesses described as shaking and a roar.

Santa Rosa firefighters initially described the tempest as a “funnel cloud.”

But such formations don't touch ground or cause the type and extent of damage seen Friday in the Santa Rosa neigbhorhood, said Steve Anderson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Instead, a small tornado, known as as a “rope tornado” may have caused the damage in Santa Rosa, Anderson said. The other possibility would be a “microburst,” a strong downward draft typically caused by the unstable air associated with thunderstorms, he said.

With storms expected to continue pretty much all week throughout California this might not be the last one.