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Small tornado strikes Point Mugu
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More from County NewsA waterspout came on shore as a weak tornado Thursday night and tore the roof off an empty air station hangar at the Naval Base Ventura County at Point Mugu, authorities said.
An air traffic controller at the base spotted the tornado about a quarter-mile away, said Bill Hoffer, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Oxnard. The waterspout's vortex was reportedly almost horizontal as it was pushed on shore by gusting winds, he said.
The tornado touched down shortly after 7 p.m., ripping off the hangar's roof and scattering debris on the runway, according to CS3 Lester Brown, who works on the quartermaster's deck. No one was injured.
Hoffer said waterspouts have been forming periodically throughout this week's storms, and the National Weather Service has issued a special marine warning that any thunderstorm could produce a waterspout, gusty wind, high waves, lightning and heavy rain.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning Thursday night for southwest Los Angeles County, including Malibu, Pacific Palisades and the Topanga area.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted by rayrose77 on January 25, 2008 at 4:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)
wow!!
Posted by dcsfancy on January 25, 2008 at 6:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is a crazy storm
Posted by Proud_hillbilly on January 25, 2008 at 7:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Oxnard is my home, but now we live in Missouri where tornados are a way of life. Guess this is a small world afterall!
Posted by VenturaN on January 25, 2008 at 9:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Awesome to see the snowy ice on my front lawn & covering my car at 6:15pm Thursday night. We had a steady 6-8ft stream corner of San Pablo & North Dunning St. Any one know the last time we had this?
Posted by Blev on January 25, 2008 at 9:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"The Day After Tomorrow"....rent it....watch it.....
Second time we've had tornado's in the area and surely not the last.
Posted by sunnbear on January 25, 2008 at 9:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Toto, I don't think we're in Pt. Mugu anymore!
Posted by Wxman on January 25, 2008 at 11:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Actually guys, the Ontario Weather Service, a forecast site in Southern California for weather issued a TORNADO WATCH, at 7am that day, well in advance of the NWS.
Here was their watch. So you see. This was called well in advance and well known.
TORNADO WATCH
ONTARIO WEATHER SERVICE
UPDATED
JANUARY 24, 2008 7:30amPST
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY COASTAL...SANTA BARBARA COASTAL...LOS ANGELES COASTAL, AND VALLEY, INCLUDING THE BASIN...ORANGE COUNTY COASTAL AND VALLEY...SAN DIEGO COASTAL AND VALLEY...SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BIGHT...VENTURA COUNTY COASTAL, AND VALLEY...
THE ONTARIO WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WATCH FOR THUNDERSTORMS TODAY THAT COULD HAVE ENOUGH LOW LEVEL SHEAR TO BE SUPERCELLS. THESE SUPERCELLS WOULD BE FAIRLY LOW TOPPED BEING AT 30,000 FEET OR LOWER. WATERSPOUTS THAT COME ASHORE AS BRIEF TORNADOES IS LIKELY SO TAKE NOTE...
SMALL HAIL IS POSSIBLE WITH THESE STORMS AS WELL.
TORNADO WATCH REVIEWS TONIGHT AT 10PM WHERE IT WILL BE EXTENDED OR EXPIRE.
A TORNADO WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE IN AND AROUND THE WATCH AREA FOR TORNADOES OR WATERSPOUTS...
Posted by jgarretson on January 25, 2008 at 12:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This was supposed to be a super dry winter according to the "experts". The last time I remember rain like this was in 97-98 when we had the El Nino and the entire Valley nearly flooded. Camarillo had a ton of flooding during that storm season too.
Posted by Ricky_Ricardo_Lucy2 on January 25, 2008 at 12:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
How does one see a horizontal waterspout in the rain, in the wind, in the DARK? That's our NAVY!!
Posted by megnosis on January 25, 2008 at 4:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ricky, with electric lights, Edison was pure genious.
Our weather experts can't trust their data sets anymore as we've begun to move outside of them. This is climate destabilization at work.
Posted by Twslv05 on January 25, 2008 at 7:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Blev lets get real here!
This type of weather is frequent not some Global Warming nonsense that the Al Gore crowd wants everyone to believe.
These types of storms occur occasionally as they have throughout California history and usually happen in the same general area as well as Santa Barbara and the South Bay.
So don't buy or rent that horrible movie and the sky is not falling.
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