The National Weather Service responds to Scotts Valley tornado concerns and questions
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Saturday afternoon's unusual tornado prompted concerns and questions from the community as to why a tornado warning wasn't issued, but an "severe weather warning" was.
"There is some terrain funneling that can happen in these cases where they actually strengthen the tornado because of local features, and I suspect there was some of that at play," said National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Dalton Behringer. "[Tornados] further inland, especially in the mountains, is exceedingly rare. I wouldn't say [it] is unprecedented, but again its exceedingly rare to have this happen in the mountains."
Behringer, who works in Monterey, said that the regional office is staffed around the clock and was fully staffed Saturday morning tracking all of the storms along the Central Coast, including the first-ever tornado in Scotts Valley in recorded history.
"Saturday morning was pretty hectic," said Behringer. "That storm exhibited probably a more intense rotation of a storm than the one in Scotts Valley initially, and that's why the [tornado] warning was issued right off the bat for San Francisco."
According to KION's meteorologist Lisa Montgomery, storms commonly originate over coastal waters and although the Scotts Valley tornado ended up being a freak system, it did start off as an intense storm that built into a tornado.
"The severe thunderstorm warning was issued about 10 minutes before the tornado occurred and with severe thunderstorms, they can produce tornadoes. They don't always but they can," said Behringer.
Behringer also said that although he was surprised by the damage, he's more surprised that there wasn't more damage done to certain areas of the town.
"As we saw in San Francisco, where we did not find evidence of a tornado, we still found evidence of 80 mile per hour winds and injuries," said Behringer, urging people to remain weather-aware. "Either way, a severe thunderstorm is issued for a storm that can be dangerous and produce potentially life-threatening situations."
