Possible tornado reported in Pico Rivera during late winter storm

A storm brought strong winds and steady rain overnight to Los Angeles County.

A possible tornado was reported early Thursday in Pico Rivera as a late winter storm brought rain and strong winds to Los Angeles County.

The possible tornado was reported at about 3:15 a.m. near the community southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The National Weather Service is sending a survey team to investigate the report in the El Rancho neighborhood.

“We’d been talking about the potential for tornados in this area for days in advance,” said Ariel Cohen, of the National Weather Service. “We had a line of intense showers that reformed over central and southern Los Angeles County. This activity exhibited some weak rotation with it.”

Daylight revealed pocked of damage in the neighborhood, including a large tree down near Church and Underwood streets. Juan Valencia said he was sleeping when he heard the tree fall outside his family’s home.

“I woke up to a big boom,” said Valencia, who said the tree fell on his family’s car, crumpling the hood and damaging the windshield.

One tree was ripped from the ground and leaning on the roof of a house. Another tree appeared to have split at the trunk.

The NWS team will look at the damage pattern to determine whether a tornado touched down and its strength on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, used to assign a tornado rating between 0 and 5 based on estimated wind speeds and damage. An EF rating of 0 indicates wind speeds of 65 to 85 mph. An EF 5 indicates speeds over 200 mph.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The brunt of the storm arrived overnight, bringing steady rain and windy conditions to Los Angeles County. The increased rainfall rates also raised the threat of slides and debris flows, leading to evacuation warnings in several LA County burn zones, including neighborhoods near the Palisades and Eaton fires.

The storm will move east Thursday, but LA County can expect showers and the possibility of thunderstorms throughout the day.

“There is a local maximum of tornado frequencies across the LA basin, especially areas between Downey, Montebello, Compton, Carson areas, East Los Angeles,” Cohen said. “That entire area has a very localized, meteorologically prime set of ingredients that can support the development of weak small tornados. We actually have seen them occur with actual frequencies that rival some portions of the Midwest.

“It’s certainly something that these folks should be prepared for as storms move through.”