Already dealing with three local emergencies as it tries to recover from the destructive Norte fire and a surge in coastal erosion from two El Niño-related Pacific storms, San Clemente feared it was facing yet another climate-fueled emergency: a tornado.
A San Diego-based National Weather Service spokesperson provided clarity Thursday evening, confirming there was no tornado, though strong winds did wreak havoc.
The weather service issued a report Thursday afternoon based on a storm survey to determine the potential cause behind reports of damaged trees, including one that was uprooted.
“Upon survey, all snapped tree limbs and the uprooted tree were pushed to the northeast, coincident with the storm’s motion,” the report noted. “With this, the reported damage was likely caused by straight-line winds.”
The report also said that radar data suggested winds might have been in excess of 50 miles per hour.
The gusts whipped through a San Clemente golf course Wednesday evening, toppling or snapping off sections of trees and leaving a trail of green carcasses across the typically manicured park, according to videos and photos reviewed by The Times. It doesn’t appear anyone was injured.
Just before 6 p.m. Wednesday, the weather service issued a special alert about a strong thunderstorm tracking 11 miles south of San Clemente that could bring wind gusts up to 55 mph, warning people to seek shelter inside.
Around that time, golfers at the San Clemente Municipal Golf Course reported heavy rain, followed by a possible funnel, which left a row of strewn branches, downed trees and one trunk completely uprooted, according to social media posts and local news reports.
Sue and Bob Talafuf, which a child, walk their dogs near downed trees at the San Clemente Municipal Golf Course on Thursday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
An Instagram post from one golfer, who appears to be former San Clemente Mayor Tim Brown, showed some of the damage. He said it was raining too hard to capture what he called a cyclone.
“There was a wind gust, it was a funnel,” Brown said in a post on Instagram. “That just tore through this whole section right here. … It just ripped on a straight line.”
Jon Malnekoff’s home borders the golf course, and he said a plexiglass windowpane facing the fairway was completely blown inward during the burst of wind.
“It flew across my living room,” Malnekoff, 86, said. “It just scared the living you-know-what.”
Somehow the burst caused only minor scratches on his floor, he said, but his entire neighborhood was littered with blown trash cans and stray tree limbs, not to mention the severe damage to the course.
The storm Wednesday was one in a barrage of strong storms across Southern California this week that caused localized flooding, strong rains and high winds and required a swift-water rescue in Los Angeles. Much of the area remained under a flood advisory through Thursday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service, which intermittently issued several other urgent alerts about strong thunderstorms.
The small city of San Clemente has for years been dealing with coastal erosion that continues to threaten a crucial rail line, but a recent surge in strong swells fueled by a strengthening “super” El Niño — first in September and then this month — has intensified issues, again shuttering the railway, reshaping swaths of the city’s beaches and damaging its iconic pier.
Then, the southern Orange County city faced a new climate-fueled emergency last week, this one in its inland hillsides, where the Norte fire quickly burned toward hillside neighborhoods and destroyed six homes.
Officials are hopeful this week’s heavy rains have helped ease wildfire concerns, but such storms also raise the risk of debris flows or mudslides in burn scars, as well as flooding.
Times staff writers Hannah Fry, Noah Haggerty and Gabriel San Román contributed to this report.