A tornado touched down in Santa Cruz County on Saturday, downing trees and flipping over cars, the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office confirmed after surveying the scene. At 1:39 p.m. on Saturday,

A tornado touched down in the Northern California town of Scotts Valley near Santa Cruz Saturday afternoon, flipping cars and knocking down power lines, according to authorities.

A rare tornado in Northern California on Saturday caused quite a bit of damage as the spiraling vortex flipped cars, damaged homes and businesses and left thousands without power.

Tornado alley it's not, but a section of California was hit Saturday with a rare tornado that has been blamed for injuring five and flipping vehicles as a storm moved across the state.

A video recorded in Scotts Valley, California, on Saturday, shows the aftermath of an EF-1 tornado that ripped through the community as an atmospheric river storm was slamming the West Coast. The video shows cars and other vehicles that were flipped like toys while power lines and other debris litter the landscape.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the tornado was categorised as an EF1, one of the weakest classifications, and that it lasted around five minutes. Earlier on Saturday, residents of San Francisco had been issued a tornado warning for the first time ever as thunderstorms swept through the region.