First tornado warning issued for the Lake Tahoe basin; Waterspout and funnel cloud spotted

The National Weather Service (NSW) in Reno today issued their very first tornado warning for the Lake Tahoe basin.

At 3:45 p.m. a severe thunderstorm warning was issued first for the middle of Lake Tahoe near Glenbrook. At that time one of their team members saw a funnel cloud over Incline Village and sent in a photo, so the tornado warning was issued immediately.

Even though Wednesday's warning was the first for Lake Tahoe, there have been five issued for northwest Nevada since 2000 according to Scott McGuire of the NWS Forecast Office in Reno.

"This was incredibly rare," said McGuire.

He said the North Lake Tahoe Fire District called NWS to let them know the funnel touched down on the lake, making it a waterspout.

"It did not stay down long," said McGuire. "If it had moved onto land it would have been a tornado."

At about the same time there was another tornado spotted 15 miles southeast of Yerington, Nev.

"We had two rare events," McGuire said. "The last tornado warning issued in Northern Nevada was on July 21, 2014.

McGuire told South Tahoe Now that today was an interesting case as they could actually confirm the funnel and waterspout immediately through photos and issue the tornado warning. There have been waterspouts on the lake before but nothing verified quick enough to be able to issue a warning as the photos are usually after the fact.

If you're looking for drier weather in Lake Tahoe, you're going to see it, but don't expect it to be warming up any time soon as a low pressure system is moving in and staying for awhile. McGuire said fall weather will be moving in but he did see a high pressure system coming in two weeks.