What’s with all the tornadoes?

This year has been a terrible one for tornadoes across the United States. Accounts very, but this weekend tornadoes killed at least 21 people in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia. It’s simply terrible and tragic, and my heart goes out to the victims.

I was discussing the situation with a friend back East this morning, and recalled that while I’ve never been close to a dangerous tornado, I did see one once — here in the Bay Area. In March 2005, a tornado struck South San Francisco, and we saw it from our living room. (Actually, we saw the black funnel cloud but thought that something was on fire in SSF. We didn’t realize that it was a tornado until later.)

To quote from the story in the San Francisco Chronicle,

At least 40 buildings — 20 homes and 20 businesses, including a fire station under construction — were damaged as the swirling winds ran a wild 3-mile path across the city, from Westborough to the San Francisco Bay. The twister also uprooted towering trees, caused gas leaks and knocked out power to about 1,500 residents.

South San Francisco Fire Chief Philip White said that one home had to be evacuated because of extensive damage. Throughout the city, residents were stepping around snapped power lines and cleaning up pieces of roofs from houses blocks away. Traffic lights, some twisted, were out at many intersections.

“I’ve been with the South San Francisco Fire Department for 22 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” White said.

South San Francisco Battalion Chief Tom Azzopardi said the funnel cloud touched down an estimated six times. It formed over the Westborough hills during a storm with dark skies and hail, touching down twice in that area before heading east over Interstate 280. Once downtown, it smashed into homes and businesses, bounced around an industrial park at Canal Street and South Spruce Avenue and then headed to Cypress Street, over Highway 101 to Dubuque Avenue and finally the bay, where it weakened.

Read the whole story… although the Chron called it a “probable tornado” in this story, its status was confirmed by meteorologists a few days later.