(CNN) At least one person was injured after the rare incident Cyclone It hit a town southeast of Los Angeles on Wednesday, local officials said.
According to Michael See, the city’s public information officer, a “severe microcell” hit the industrial area of Montebello. At least 17 buildings were damaged, 11 so severely that the fire department deemed them too dangerous to use, Seay told CNN.
“There was all that flying debris!!!!” He tweeted that Someone shared a video of the storm. The video zooms in on dark gray clouds consuming the sky and heading towards land.
The reported injury is considered minor, Seay told a news conference.
The National Weather Service in Los Angeles confirmed Wednesday evening that the storm was a tornado, but had not yet given it an EF rating as they were still assessing the damage.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, tornadoes are rare in California. Most of the cyclones in the state are small and short-lived.
They are commonly referred to as landmasses (like the water table, but above land). These differ from traditional tornadoes formed by rotating thunderstorms, such as are common in the Central Plains and Southeast. Although landslides can cause damage, it is usually not extensive or severe.
A weak tornado struck a mobile home park in Carpinteria, a coastal city northwest of Los Angeles, on Tuesday evening, the weather service confirmed Wednesday. The service rated it an EF-0, with winds up to 75 mph.
The tornado damaged 25 mobile home units in the Sandpiper Village mobile home park and damaged small trees in a nearby cemetery.
Additional video of the Montebello storm shows a swirling cloud of black debris as roofs are blown off nearby buildings. Vehicles are seen damaged and windows broken.
“The roof just fell off this building,” says one witness, recording a parking lot full of damaged vehicles.
“This is the stuff you see in Ohio, Arkansas…not Montebello,” another witness is heard saying.
Wednesday’s severe weather comes as California has suffered the least in recent months 12 atmospheric rivers They have brought devastating floods and hurricane-force winds. An atmospheric river is like a fire hose, which carries saturated air from the tropics to high latitudes, dumping incessant rain or snow.
CNN’s Jillian Sykes contributed to this report.
