A #tornado touched down in California flipping multiple cars and causing damage to buildings and property…
— General Strike 🍀(Terrence Daniels) (@Terrence_STR) December 15, 2024
For the first time in history, San Francisco received a tornado warning on December 14, 2024, a notable event for a city better known for its summer fogs than extreme… pic.twitter.com/FyjTuo5oyi
A tornado near a mall in central California swept up cars, uprooted trees, and sent several people to the hospital. In San Francisco, authorities issued the first-ever tornado warning.
Elsewhere, inclement weather plagued areas of the U.S., with dangerous conditions including heavy snow in upstate New York, a major ice storm in Midwest states,s and severe weather warnings around Lake Tahoe.
The ice storm beginning Friday evening created treacherous driving conditions across Iowa and eastern Nebraska on Friday and into Saturday and prompted temporary closures of Interstate 80 after numerous cars and trucks slid off the road. In upstate New York, more than 33 inches (84 centimeters) was reported near Orchard Park, which is often a landing point for lake-effect snow.
On Saturday, a tornado touched down around 1:40 p.m. near a shopping mall in Scotts Valley, California, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of San Francisco. The tornado overturned cars and toppled trees and utility poles, the National Weather Service said. The Scotts Valley Police Department said several people were injured and taken to hospitals.
In San Francisco, some trees toppled onto cars and streets and damaged roofs. The damage was due to 80-mph (130-kph) straight-line winds, not a tornado, weather service meteorologist Dalton Behringer said Sunday.
Roger Gass, a meteorologist in the weather service’s office in Monterey, California, said the warning of a possible tornado in San Francisco was a first for the city, noting an advanced alert did not go out before the last tornado struck nearly 20 years ago.
“I would guess there wasn’t a clear signature on radar for a warning in 2005,” said Gass, who was not there at the time.
The fast-moving storm prompted warnings for residents to take shelter, but few people have basements in the area.
Heavy snow fell at some Lake Tahoe ski resorts, and a 112-mph (181-kph) gust of wind was recorded at the Mammoth Mountain resort south of Yosemite National Park, according to the weather service’s office in Reno, Nevada. Up to 3 feet (91 centimeters) of snow was forecast for Sierra Nevada mountaintops.
The weekend Tahoe Live music festival at Palisades Tahoe ski resort in California went ahead as planned despite a snowstorm Saturday. Lil Wayne and Diplo were scheduled to perform on Sunday, the festival’s website said. The resort said it has received 3.5 feet (1 meter) of snow since Friday. An avalanche warning was in effect at least until Monday morning in the area.
Interstate 80 was closed along an 80-mile (130-kilometer) stretch from Applegate, California, to the Nevada line just west of Reno on Saturday. The California Highway Patrol reopened the road in the afternoon for passenger vehicles with chains or four-wheel drive and snow tires.
The severe weather in the Midwest resulted in at least one death. The Washington County Sheriff’s office in Nebraska said a 57-year-old woman died after she lost control of her pickup on Highway 30 near Arlington and hit an oncoming truck. The other driver sustained minor injuries.
Businesses announced plans to open late Saturday as temperatures rose high enough in the afternoon to melt the ice in most places.
“Luckily some warmer air is moving in behind this to make it temporary,” said Dave Cousins, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in Davenport, Iowa.
Tens of thousands of people in western Washington state lost electricity Saturday as the system delivered rain and gusty winds, local news outlets reported.
The death toll in the French territory of Mayotte from Cyclone Chido is “several hundred” and may run into the thousands, the island’s top government official told a local broadcaster Sunday.
France rushed rescue teams and supplies to its largely poor overseas department in the Indian Ocean which has suffered widespread destruction.
“I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand. Even thousands ... given the violence of this event,″ Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told TV station Mayotte la 1ere.
He had previously said it was the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years.
Bieuville said it was extremely difficult to get an exact number of deaths and injuries after Mayotte was pummeled by the intense tropical cyclone on Saturday, causing major damage to public infrastructure, including the airport, flattening neighborhoods and knocking out electricity supplies.
The French Interior Ministry confirmed at least 11 deaths and more than 250 injuries earlier Sunday but said that was expected to increase substantially.
Mayotte in the southwestern Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa is France’s poorest island and the poorest territory in the European Union. It has a population of just over 300,000 spread over two main islands.
Bieuville said the worst devastation had been seen in the slums of metal shacks and informal structures that mark much of Mayotte. Referring to the official death toll so far, he said ″this figure is not plausible when you see the images of the slums.”
“I think the human toll is much higher,” he added.
Mayotte took the brunt of Chido
Chido blew through the southwestern Indian Ocean on Friday and Saturday, also affecting the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar. Mayotte was directly in the cyclone’s path, though, and took the brunt. Chido brought winds over 220 kph (136 mph), according to the French weather service, making it a category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale.
Later, Chido made landfall in Mozambique on the African mainland and there were fears for more than 2 million people in the country’s north who could be impacted, according to authorities there.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his “thoughts” were with the Mayotte people and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was due to travel to Mayotte on Monday. Retailleau had warned Saturday night after an emergency meeting in Paris that the death toll “will be high,” while new Prime Minister François Bayrou, who took office on Friday, said infrastructure had been severely damaged or destroyed across Mayotte.
Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims while on a visit Sunday to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.
France wants to open an air and sea bridge to Mayotte
Rescuers and firefighters were sent from France and the nearby French territory of Reunion and supplies were also rushed in on military aircraft and ships. Damage to the airport’s control tower meant only military aircraft were able to fly in.
Patrice Latron, the prefect of Reunion, said authorities aim to establish an air and sea bridge from Reunion to Mayotte. About 800 more rescuers were to be sent in the coming days and more than 80 tons of supplies had been flown in or were on their way by ship. Some of the priorities were restoring electricity and access to drinking water, Latron said.
The French Interior Ministry said 1,600 police and gendarmerie officers have been deployed to “help the population and prevent potential looting.”
In some parts of Mayotte, entire neighborhoods of metal shacks and huts were flattened, while residents reported trees had been uprooted, boats flipped or sunk and many areas were without power.
Chad Youyou, a resident in Hamjago in the north of the island, posted videos on Facebook showing the extensive damage in his village and across the surrounding fields and hills, where almost every tree had been leveled.
“Mayotte is destroyed … we are destroyed,” he said.
The cyclone slams into northern Mozambique
Chido continued its eastern trajectory and into northern Mozambique where it continued to cause serious damage, while farther inland landlocked Malawi and Zimbabwe warned they might have to evacuate people because of flooding.
In Mozambique, UNICEF said Cabo Delgado province, home to around 2 million people, was the first region to be hit and many homes, schools, and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed.
UNICEF Mozambique spokesman Guy Taylor said that communities faced the prospect of being cut off from schools and health facilities for weeks and Mozambique authorities warned there was a high danger of landslides.
December through to March is cyclone season in the southwestern Indian Ocean and southern Africa has been pummeled by a series of strong ones in recent years. Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed more than 1,300 people, mostly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries in the Indian Ocean and southern Africa last year.
The cyclones bring the risk of flooding and landslides, but also stagnant pools of water may later spark deadly outbreaks of the waterborne disease cholera as well as dengue fever and malaria.
Studies say the cyclones are getting worse because of climate change. They can leave poor countries in Africa, which contribute a tiny amount to global warming, having to deal with large humanitarian crises, underlining their call for more help from rich nations to deal with the impact of climate change.
Quelle tristesse! Ce n’est pas comme si nous n’avions alerté tant de fois et encore récemment en juin lors de la commission d’enquête de @AssembleeNat que je présidais. Nous avons besoin de secours sous le sceau de l’urgence et rétablir l’électricité à l’hôpital #Mayotte #Chido pic.twitter.com/A2an4itKSD
— Mansour KAMARDINE - Officiel (@Kamardine_M) December 14, 2024