There was crazy weather in the Northern California city of Carmichael on Tuesday, with intense wind gusts creating a mess of a cleanup that left some wondering: Was that a tornado?
The National Weather Service assessed the damage and determined it was what is known as a downburst, a powerful straight-line wind that often is mistaken for tornadoes and can cause similar damage. The powerful winds descend from a decaying shower or thunderstorm and then spread out quickly when they hit the ground.
It hit the area around 10 a.m. Tuesday, knocking out power for thousands and uprooting trees across the Carmichael area.
"I thought, 'Oh, we are in the middle of a tornado,' " said Michelle Bailey, who experienced the intense winds.
Bailey said the wind was so intense that it knocked her over and uprooted her next-door neighbor's tree.
"It was violent real quick and then it just was gone," Bailey said.
Mac Reed said her tree had been in good health in February when an arborist came out, but she watched the 70-mile-per-hour wind gusts pull it out of the ground, thankfully landing away from her home.
"This storm literally happened in five minutes from start to finish and it was wild," Reed said.
Neighbors spent the day cleaning up snapped branches, limbs and broken fences with Sacramento County crews working overtime to clear out 30 down trees and massive limbs they got calls about. It also fixed 11 traffic signals that went dark.
"Having been from Oklahoma, I am like, 'What the hell is going on here? This is California,' " said Christi Reilly, who lives in Carmichael.
Sacramento County is asking people to stay patient as crews are working overtime to clean up all the trees and prioritizing the ones blocking roads.
CBS13 called the county about Reed's tree. By 5 p.m., crews arrived and started clearing it out.
The National Weather Service said the damage swath was 2.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide from American River College, northeast in the vicinity of a line from East Lawn Mortuary to Mercy San Juan Medical Center.
It said that there was not a severe thunderstorm warning in effect, and radar at the time did not indicate severe-level winds. The damage reports did not roll in until the showers were out of the area.