Southern California Under Tornado Risk On Friday

Incredible. Let's talk about the rain side of this because we've got all the snow coming down. This is Lost Hills, California, about 40, 42 miles northwest of Bakersfield, right in the central valley. Look at the dark clouds rain off in the distance. Heavy rain could lead to some flooding, not only that, but the potential for some rock slides and mudslides, not just in burn scar areas, but everywhere in the hills. We've got so many hills to be concerned with. So we get, this is going to be in the central valley before you go up and over the Great Vine if you're ahead of the south into Southern California.

The center of the storm just off of the Bay Area there, notice all those little piecemeal looking clouds. That's some cold unsettled air. That could spark more in the way of thunderstorms and maybe even the potential for some water spots. Heavy rain moving over portions of the central coast through the foothills before you get up into the higher elevations. Sacramento, the Sacramento Valley, you see all the rain coming down and boy, this has really been adding up now as we go south into central and southern California. We're still expecting another three to seven inches of rain. The LA Basin getting the brunt of it.

And notice the direction on the left side of your screen. The radar shows over the past couple of hours the wind coming in and the rain from the south, southwest. That's banking up against the hill. You get some upslope. You should ring out a lot of rain or a lot of snow. And remember the mountain ranges and suddenly California going all different types of directions. There is the flood threat.

Flash blood threat level three out of four does include the LA Basin up and through portions of Santa Barbara into Orange County. And when you look at the rain, quite a bit of it, look at those shades of orange right off the foothills down into the lower line areas easily, five to eight inches of fresh rain. And it looks like a hose pointed directly at central and southern California as we go through the afternoon and evening hours. Then as we can see that ramp up and move over portions of San Diego, Imperial County probably not getting the brunt of it, but you could see if we isolated thunderstorms, the main center of it starts to move overhead Saturday. Having said that, look at this, we've got a chance for tornadoes. The National Weather Service Office out of LA and San Diego, they have not issued a tornado warning in about three years. Well, watch that closely as we go into the evening hours.

Wind alerts also a major concern, which could also cause power outages. Not only are you talking about water spouts, kendo, but could see some landspouts. Remember, landspouts don't form over those mesos scales. It's wind coming together and they go from the ground up last 15 minutes and could do some damage. I'm Amy Freese. Welcome to Fox Weather's YouTube page. We have more great videos on the way, so make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all things weather.

severe weather, weather news, fox weather, southern california, tornado, tornado risk, tornado threat, tornado in southern california 2023, weather, weather app, california, severe storms