Tornado hits southern California as wild weather continues

LOS ANGELES - A tornado tore through a southern California city Wednesday, ripping roofs off buildings and throwing cars around, as the state's ongoing winter weather drama turned even wilder.

A swirling mass of wind -- of the kind usually seen in the Midwest -- raked the city of Montebello near Los Angeles, breaking windows and sending residents scurrying to safety.

"I was driving... and I saw this tornado in front of me and had to reverse out," one local business owner told broadcaster KTLA.

"The tornado took off the roof of the building. All the windows of the cars are shattered. Cars were destroyed, it was just a mess."

Footage showed what appeared to be roofing material circling above industrial buildings in the city, which lies just a kilometres from downtown Los Angeles.

Aerial pictures in the aftermath showed holes in several roofs, pipes and installations twisted and broken, and cars seemingly pushed out of their parking bays.

"I saw cars just swiveling through the streets and it was just the craziest thing I've ever seen," the business owner said.

The National Weather Service said it was investigating the event, which it called "a weak tornado," and another in Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara.

"A weak, narrow tornado briefly touched down in the Sandpiper Village mobile home park in Carpinteria on the evening of Tuesday, March 21," the NWS said.

"It damaged around 25 mobile home units and there was minor tree damage to the cemetery adjacent to the mobile home park."

Tornadoes -- violently rotating columns of air that touch the ground -- are nature's most violent storms, the NWS says.

Nevertheless, "this is a pretty significant tornado by (California) standards since it hit a populated area, clearly caused damage, and may have caused injuries," meteorologist Daniel Swain said on Twitter.