SAN DIEGO — People who live in a Spring Valley mobile home park are cleaning up after a rare wind event tore through their properties.
It happened on Wednesday at the Terrace Estates on Sweetwater Road, leaving a huge mess behind. At least five mobile homes here were damaged.
“It was so intense. It was just so loud,” said Paula Yakel.
Yakel was listening to the Padres game when she heard what sounded like an airplane descending fast.
“It was so intense and then I heard like metal and II jumped up and ran out here and all I could see was his roof gone,” said Yakel.
Not only was her neighbor's roof gone, but Yakel's car port was in pieces.
Some landed on her car and others went over her roof, landing on the other side.
Juanita Garcia, who lives one home down, had damage to her roof as well. Another home above hers is missing pieces from its side.
Ale Anciso says she thought it was a tornado, saying her entire home was shaking.
Anciso also says when she stepped outside, she felt a burst of hot air in her face, and it was difficult to stand because the wind was so strong.
The event also knocked down plants and garbage cans, and lifted debris hundreds of feet. Pictures show items flying in the sky and some wound up across Sweetwater Road.
On Thursday, there was still some debris leftover, even in one of the trees.
So, what caused all this?
Alex Tardy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service says, while some people thought it was a tornado or dust cloud, he says both can be ruled out based on conditions at the time.
He believes what occurred is what's known as a ‘breaking wave’, when the Santa Ana winds coming from the east collide with the sea breeze coming from the west.
“Imagine a figure skater on ice. You push her a little bit. She stops spinning and fall, so when you have other forces on the swirl, it messes it up,” said Tardy.
Based on the damage, Tardy estimates the burst was around 50 miles per hour.
He says it's a rare event west of the mountains, but because it was so hot Wednesday, that allowed air to rise, which is prime for this type of thing.
He received a similar report around the same time out of Vista, where a home and car were also damaged.
"Rising air goes up and forces that air to go down in the same general area."
Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the cleanup process is already well underway.
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