Twister, Tornado | featured news

At least two tornadoes struck Springfield, Massachusetts, and other communities in the western part of the state Wednesday, leaving "many injuries" and extensive damage, the state's governor said.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for eastern Contra Costa County today after a trained spotter reported a funnel cloud near Brentwood. Tornadoes are rare in California and almost unheard of in the Bay Area, but this is the second time this week the weather service has issued a warning locally. Santa Clara County was put under a tornado warning Wednesday afternoon. No twister materialized.

It sounds like the movie "Twister" -- teams of scientists in vans, armed with high-tech measuring equipment, barreling across the Oklahoma plains in search of tornadoes. But these scientists are colleagues, not rivals, and these storms aren't Hollywood digital wizardry but the real thing.