Strongest tornado in L.A. County in 40 years hit 110 mile-per-hour winds

Noah Goldberg
·1 min read
1
Montebello, CA - March 22: Crews start to clean up debris after a strong microburst -- which some witnesses dubbed a possible tornado -- which injured one person and heavily damaged several cars and buildings, including the roof of the Royal Paper Box Company, shown in photo, in Montebello Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Five buildings have been damaged and one has been red-tagged. Video from the scene showing portions of rooftops being ripped off industrial structures and debris swirling in the air. The National Weather Service on Tuesday night issued a brief tornado warning in southwestern Los Angeles County, but it was allowed to expire after about 15 minutes when weather conditions eased. There was no such warning in place late Wednesday morning when the powerful winds hit Montebello, near the area of Washington Boulevard and Vail Avenue. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
A tornado that touched down in Montebello on Wednesday heavily damaged the roof of the Royal Paper Box Company. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The tornado that swirled through Montebello for minutes on Wednesday recorded winds of 110 miles per hour, the strongest twister to touch down in Los Angeles County since 1983, according to the National Weather Service.

The Montebello tornado — which cut a path nearly half a mile long — left 17 buildings damaged and 11 structures red-tagged, according to the National Weather Service and local officials. The tornado was 50 yards wide.

The tornado registered an EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which measures the weather events based on wind speed.

An EF1 tornado is any that records winds between 86 and 110 mph and is considered a "weak" tornado. The most powerful tornadoes — with designations of EF5 — have wind speeds over 200 mph.

The last time a tornado hit at least an EF1 in Los Angeles County was just over 40 years ago, on March 1, 1983, when an EF2 tornado tore through a residential area in South-Central.

That tornado injured 25, mostly from flying glass, and destroyed 37 homes and severely damaged more than 100 others. Wednesday's tornado injured just one.

On Tuesday, the Santa Barbara County city of Carpinteria also was hit by a tornado — much less severe than the Montebello twister.

The tornado that hit the coastal city had winds of just 75 mph, though it was enough to damage 25 mobile homes at Sandpiper Village as well as surrounding trees. One person was injured in the Carpinteria tornado.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.