Hail falls in Bay Area as storm brings slim chance of tornado

Wild wintry weather hit the Bay Area on Tuesday as hail fell in some areas, including San Francisco’s Mission District, and unstable conditions created the possibility of a rare tornado.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration risk map indicated a 2% chance of a twister in the region Tuesday, KPIX-TV reported.

Despite heavy downpours in some cities, the Bay Area’s seasonal rainfall was expected to remain well below normal, even as it received as much as an inch of rain, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

“Any rainfall is welcome and helps, but we’re way behind,” said Bob Benjamin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. “We’d have to get more than almost eight inches of rain to bring us up to normal.”

Crews were cleaning up Tuesday morning in Berkeley, where a redwood tree was shredded by lightning Monday afternoon near Holly Street and Buena Avenue.

The Bay Area can expect showers and possibly thunderstorms Tuesday, with the “propensity and intensity becoming a little more numerous as the day progresses,” Benjamin said.