Video of Tornado in Los Angeles Shows Extremely Rare Weather Phenomenon

An extremely rare tornado has battered part of Los Angeles with video footage showing debris flying through the air.

Startling videos have cascaded onto social media of the tornado that is the city’s strongest in 40 years.

The powerful winds ripped off a roof on Wednesday afternoon and tore up trees during the tornado that only lasted for two to three minutes.

One person has been injured and there was a report of a teacher being sucked out of a classroom in Montebello which saw the worst of the storm.

Several buildings have sustained damage making them too dangerous for people to enter. In one case, an HVAC unit was sent flying off the top of a building, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“People feel like we don’t get tornadoes in California, but we do actually get them here,” say Carol Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “To get a tornado in any one spot is very rare, but to see a few of them a year is not uncommon.”

The tornado comes after a period of unusually wild weather in California with Long Beach Airport receiving 1.53 inches of rain in a single day.

Downtown Los Angeles received 1.43 inches of rain, surpassing its 130-year record set in 1893.