BUFFALO, N.Y. — The National Weather Service confirms an EF-1 tornado touched down in the city of Buffalo Monday afternoon, damaging buildings and sending debris swirling.

The NWS says the tornado touched down around 12:50 p.m. near Niagara and Carolina streets. It was determined to begin at the shore near where Lake Erie flows into the Niagara River and traveled a 1.4-mile (2.25-kilometer) path. 

“It surprised everyone,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference.

In the aftermath, photos showed a car on its roof in a parking lot, street signs bent and fallen tree limbs across roads and sidewalks.

Poloncarz said a nursing facility damaged in the storm was assessing whether to move patients. A school sustained damage to some windows, several traffic lights were knocked offline and some cars were overturned, Mayor Byron Brown said. 

Buffalo Police say there are no injuries to report right now.

It is the third tornado reported in Erie County in a month. Poloncarz said tornadoes were confirmed in the towns of Eden and West Falls three weeks ago. Two additional tornadoes were reported in neighboring Genesee County the same day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.