Tornado Rips Up Trees, Roofs In California's Silicon Valley

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Sheila Scheid knew what was happening when she looked out her front window and saw shingles and dirt flying through the air. She just didn't know what to do about it.

"Nobody ever says anything about a tornado in California," she said.

A small tornado tore through a neighborhood of the Silicon Valley community 40 miles southeast of San Francisco yesterday, uprooting trees, damaging roofs and shattering windows. One woman was slightly injured.

"I've never seen anything like this, with a tornado in Sunnyvale," public safety Capt. Doug Lamar said.

Twisters are relatively rare in California, although there have been 20 to 30 of similar strength in the San Francisco Bay area in the past four decades, said meteorologist Dan Weygand at the National Weather Service.

He described the tornado as weak and said it touched down for about 10 minutes.

"Everything is relative," Weygand said. "Compared to Texas, the chances of getting hit by a tornado here are almost negligible."

About 1,500 customers lost power in Sunnyvale, along with more than 4,000 in nearby Los Altos, a spokesperson for Pacific Gas & Electric said.

High wind shattered stained-glass windows at the Congregational Community Church in Los Altos.

"This is what happens in nature," said the Rev. Genavieve Heywood. "Chaos leads to creation and we will create something new from this. We'll clean it up and we'll go on."

The Sunnyvale twister was part of a storm system that also caused wind damage today in San Luis Obispo, between the Bay area and Los Angeles, with trees falling on cars and a house and some power lines down.

Santa Barbara got more than half an inch of rain overnight, giving it a total of 45.41 inches since the seasonal measuring period began July 1 and making this the wettest year there since record-keeping started in 1867.