Yes, that was a tornado in Los Angeles on Christmas

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A tornado did, in fact, spin through Los Angeles on Christmas, the National Weather Service confirmed, damaging a home and a commercial strip mall.With a wind speed of up to 80 mph, the brief tornado traveled for about a third of a mile in Boyle Heights just after 10 a.m.

Thursday.It was classified as an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the weakest kind of tornado, in which three-second gusts can be 65 to 85 mph.

The tornado first hit a home on Lee Street, damaging the roof and allowing rainwater to leak inside.It then hit a strip mall on the northeast corner of Whittier Boulevard and South Lorena Street, breaking some windows and tree branches, bending a utility pole and destroying several business signs, the weather service said in a statement Friday evening.

California Scientists attribute these extreme weather swings to climate change, warning of intensifying “hydroclimate whiplash” patterns globally.Just north of the shopping plaza off of Lorena Street, damage could be seen on the roofs of some homes and metal chain link fences.Residents described how “the storm roared and the house was shaking” when the twister spun through.

The tornado ended at 10:12 a.m.on Thursday.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass toured the damaged neighborhood on Friday and spoke to residents there.“The safety of every Angeleno is my top priority,” she said in a statement, citing the tornado and “consecutive days of wet weather.”The confirmation that a tornado, albeit a small one, had struck Los Angeles was the latest illustration of the power of the Christmas Eve-Christmas Day Pineapple Express storm, which brought record amounts of rain to a wide swath of Southern California for the two-day holiday period.On Friday night, a large boulder fell from a mountainside and rolled onto Highway 18 west of Big Bear Lake; two cars were then involved in a vehicle collision.

Five people were r...