PHOENIX — The National Weather Service has confirmed that at least three tornadoes hit the Valley in the early morning hours of Black Friday.
Ken Waters, the NWS warning coordination meteorologist for Phoenix, said he could count on one hand the number of times he's even had to issue warnings during his 12 years in the Valley.
"Happily, this is a very rare event here in Arizona," Waters said.
Waters is the one who investigated after the fact to confirm that at least three tornadoes had touched down around the Valley, one of them EF-1.
He said things like wind patterns on radar during the storm and the type of damage left after the storm will tell a meteorologist if the event was a tornado or some other type of storm.
According to Waters, storms that bring on straight-line winds like a microburst from a monsoon will not leave twisted trees in their wake. They will also leave what trees they do move or knock down leaning in the same direction.
A tornado may have one tree on one side of the street leaning one way while a tree across the street is leaning the opposite direction. Waters said the disparity is evidence of rotation.
After the storms had passed Friday, as 12 News viewer sent us this email: "Early Friday morning we all received the tornado warning on our phones. It said 'Take shelter.' What exactly does that mean in Arizona? I don't have a storm cellar or a basement and had absolutely no idea what to do. I'd like to see some kind of safety expert give us some direction so I won't feel so helpless if there's a next time."
The answer, according to Waters, is to find an internal room in the house. This is something like a closet or bathroom that does not have open air on the other side. It may also be a good idea to cover your head with something to protect it from falling objects.
According to Waters, even the storms that are later determined to be tornadoes should not make this necessary.
"The good news is that here in Arizona it is very unlikely to have that bad of a tornado," Waters said.