SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A tornado touched down in a California field as weekend thunderstorms swept through the central part of the state, dropping rain and dime-sized hail, forecasters said.
Cellphone video posted online showed a towering vortex spinning Saturday evening near Davis.
The National Weather Service office in Sacramento said they plan to send a crew out to perform more assessments on possible damage. No damages have been reported so far, according to the local office.
Tornadoes in the Central Valley aren't entirely unusual and are "weaker and more short-lived" than ones typically seen in the Midwest, she said.
Saturday's storm blanketed some roadways with hail in and around Solano County. More stormy conditions were possible Sunday evening.
To the east, forecasters issued a winter weather advisory after several inches of snow fell in the Sierra Nevada.
Heller called it "the first real snow of the season."
Elevations of 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) and above recorded up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of fresh powder on Saturday. More snow was forecast for Sunday into Monday and the highest mountain peaks could see up to 6 inches (15 centimeters).
The severe weather is the result of a cold front over the Pacific Northwest that is spinning out waves of unstable air as it moves east, Heller told the newspaper.
The rotation of the tornado seemed to have started near the ground and grew in size as it moved up into the thunderstorm. This is what’s known as a landspout tornado. These tornadoes are not supercell tornadoes that begin as a rotation from the storm and make their way down to the surface of the earth.
Different from dust devils, landspout tornadoes have a condensation funnel that leads into the thunderstorm allowing for heavy rain and hail.
Videos and current photos do not show the initiation of the tornado from the storm cell but near the surface. More videos and photos may be able to give us a better insight into what was really seen in Davis Saturday.
WATCH MORE: Severe weather rolls through Sacramento area