A forecasted dry weekend follows a holiday storm that dumped more than a foot of rain in some mountain areas and brought a rare tornado, after all, to Boyle Heights.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday, Dec. 24, night warned that a tornado could hit Alhambra and portions of Pasadena, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, El Monte and Temple City.
Ten minutes later, the warning was canceled.
LA gets most Christmas rain since 1971 and another storm is coming for New Year’s Day
But the next day an EF0 tornado — the weakest category on the Enhanced Fujita Scale — struck at 10:10 a.m. in Boyle Heights, the Weather Service said. It had a maximum wind speed of 80 mph, traveled three-tenths of a mile and had a width of 30 yards.
A house on Lee Street suffered damage to the surface and structure of the roof, with water leaking inside.
Several business signs were destroyed at a strip mall on the northeast corner of Whittier Boulevard and Lorena Street, two blocks north of the damaged house, with plastic and metal debris blown across the area, breaking some windows.
A utility pole was bent and in need of quick repair, tree branches were broken and lighting infrastructure was damaged.
The damaging path ended in an alley just north of the shopping plaza off of South Lorena Street. In this area, damage was observed to the roofs of residences and metal chain-link fences.
“Many families woke up on Christmas Day to damage in their neighborhoods caused by an unusual and powerful storm,” said Los Angeles Council member Ysabel Jurado, whose district includes Boyle Heights.
“If your home or property was affected, please contact 311 or my office so we can help connect you to available resources and services,” she said. “Events like this can be frightening, but I am relieved that there are no reports of injuries.”