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Tornado hits Boyle Heights
A weak tornado was confirmed by weather officials in Boyle Heights. The EF-0 tornado hit Christmas morning.
LOS ANGELES - The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-0 tornado occurred on Christmas Day in Boyle Heights.
Minor damage can be seen to structures near S. Lorena Street and Whittier Blvd.
Many were still shocked to hear that a tornado swept through a dense neighborhood of Los Angeles.
What they're saying:
"From south it came northbound, it struck the sign from the smoke shop, said Ronald Arevelo. "It spiraled and just directly hit the tiny glass window panes and all the glass shattered and all the debris went inside."
He says his father, Orlando Arevelo, owns and operates a restaurant on S. Lorena St. near Whittier Blvd. Ronald says the restaurant's security camera captured video of the tornado's path Thursday morning.
In the video you can see debris flying through store windows.
"We do get theses weak brief tornadoes in the LA area, and you need to take them seriously," said Dr. Ariel Cohen with the National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service, along with Mayor Karen Bass, and the fire department and emergency management personnel, surveyed several homes and businesses.
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Christmas Day tornado hits Boyle Heights
A weak EF-0 tornado was reported in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Based in part on damage to a power pole and damaged signs and roofs, the NWS said they determined an EF-0 had hit. They added the tornado had 80 miles per hour winds.
"In this kind of environment, many different storm cells have the same signature and very few if any produce tornadoes, this one happened to," said Dr. Cohen.
The National Weather Service says in this case they did not issue a tornado warning because they'd risk causing "significant alert fatigue."
"We really reserve these warnings that cause the wireless emergency alerts to be for the most life-threatening situations," said Dr. Cohen.
Mayor Bass said Thursday's tornado is a sign to expect the unexpected.
"Us having these very different events that we are not used to experiencing, the main message to Angelenos is we can't look at ourselves as different and immune for extreme weather events like we might have in the past," said Mayor Bass.
The Source: Information for this story came from the National Weather Service, Mayor Karen Bass, fire department, and residents in Boyle Heights.