San Francisco area given first recorded tornado warning

Residents of the San Francisco area awoke Saturday to a meteorological rarity — a tornado warning.

It was the first ever issued to the region.

“A tornado warning is in effect until 6:20 a.m. for northern San Mateo County, including portions of downtown San Francisco. Take shelter immediately!,” the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office wrote on social media just before 6 a.m.

Tornados hit the area before, but none had radar-based warnings.

“This was the first ever warning for [a] possible tornado in San Francisco. I would guess there wasn’t a clear signature on radar for a warning in 2005,” Roger Gass, a meteorologist in the NWS Monterey office, told The Associated Press.

The 2005 tornado touched down in the separate city of South San Francisco. Down the road in Sunnyvale, a 1951 tempest damaged 151 homes. Before that, an 1891 twister that touched down in San Francisco proper killed a man via falling debris, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Though the warning lasted until 6:20 a.m., it was lifted for San Francisco specifically at 6:07 a.m. when the storm moved northeast of the city’s downtown, the NWS Bay Area office wrote in a social media update.