Interesting reading: California Tropical Storm

[TexasSam]

California's one, confirmed tropcial storm came ashore near Long Beach in late September 1939 with 50 mph winds. Since this was before forecasters began naming storms, it has no formal name.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/whhcalif.htm

[HURAKAN]

What about this?

The San Diego hurricane of October 2, 1858

Michael Chenoweth, Independent Scholar, Elkridge, MD; and C. W. Landsea

On October 2, 1858, estimated sustained hurricane force winds produced by a tropical cyclone located a short distance offshore were felt in San Diego, California. Unprecedented damage was done in the city and was described as the severest gale ever felt to that date nor has it been matched or exceeded in severity since. A “Southeaster” and high seas from the diminishing tropical cyclone were also felt in the night of October 2-3 at San Pedro (the port serving Los Angeles), with shipping interests lightly damaged. The hurricane force winds at San Diego are the first and only documented instance of winds of this strength from a tropical cyclone in the recorded history of the state. Available evidence suggests that the hurricane tracked just offshore from San Diego, without the eye coming inland, but close enough to produce damaging winds along the entire coast from San Diego to Long Beach. The re-discovery of this storm is relevant to climate change issues and the insurance/emergency management communities risk assessment of rare and extreme events in the region. .

[Aslkahuna]

The September 1939 storm is sometimes called the El Cordonazo after the term El Cordonazo de San Francisco (The Lash of St. Francis) used to identify landfalling EPAC hurricanes in Mexico before much was known about them and their propensity to occur close to St Francis' Day which is in early October.

Steve

[Jim Hughes]

What about this?

The San Diego hurricane of October 2, 1858

Michael Chenoweth, Independent Scholar, Elkridge, MD; and C. W. Landsea

On October 2, 1858, estimated sustained hurricane force winds produced by a tropical cyclone located a short distance offshore were felt in San Diego, California. Unprecedented damage was done in the city and was described as the severest gale ever felt to that date nor has it been matched or exceeded in severity since. A “Southeaster” and high seas from the diminishing tropical cyclone were also felt in the night of October 2-3 at San Pedro (the port serving Los Angeles), with shipping interests lightly damaged. The hurricane force winds at San Diego are the first and only documented instance of winds of this strength from a tropical cyclone in the recorded history of the state. Available evidence suggests that the hurricane tracked just offshore from San Diego, without the eye coming inland, but close enough to produce damaging winds along the entire coast from San Diego to Long Beach. The re-discovery of this storm is relevant to climate change issues and the insurance/emergency management communities risk assessment of rare and extreme events in the region. .

I seem to recall reading about a strong El Nino being present around this time. But I do not have the data in front of me. That would lend credence to it...Stronger EPAC season etc..

[Jim Hughes]

What about this?

The San Diego hurricane of October 2, 1858

Michael Chenoweth, Independent Scholar, Elkridge, MD; and C. W. Landsea

On October 2, 1858, estimated sustained hurricane force winds produced by a tropical cyclone located a short distance offshore were felt in San Diego, California. Unprecedented damage was done in the city and was described as the severest gale ever felt to that date nor has it been matched or exceeded in severity since. A “Southeaster” and high seas from the diminishing tropical cyclone were also felt in the night of October 2-3 at San Pedro (the port serving Los Angeles), with shipping interests lightly damaged. The hurricane force winds at San Diego are the first and only documented instance of winds of this strength from a tropical cyclone in the recorded history of the state. Available evidence suggests that the hurricane tracked just offshore from San Diego, without the eye coming inland, but close enough to produce damaging winds along the entire coast from San Diego to Long Beach. The re-discovery of this storm is relevant to climate change issues and the insurance/emergency management communities risk assessment of rare and extreme events in the region. .

I seem to recall reading about a strong El Nino being present around this time. But I do not have the data in front of me. That would lend credence to it...Stronger EPAC season etc..

[EDR1222]

Seems like there would have to be some kind of El -Nino due to the fact the waters off Calfornia normally do not get out of the 60's even in the summertime.

Interesting read.

[weatherwindow]

seeming contradiction, huh...EDR. i am of the ilk that a significant calif landfalling trop system would be dependent on the presence of a very sharp off shore of scal and the baja...sort of analogous to the setup that produces the major new england landfalls. the maintenance of trop storm/hurricane strength over the less than marginal ssts offshore scal would require acceleration to greater than 30kts prior to landfall. in addition it would likely require an initially very intense cylone...cat 4/5 southsouthwest of the cabos...which, in turn, would be more likely(late sept/early oct) during a significant el nino year. obviously, this combination of circumstances is very rare, much rarer, IMO, than the new england analogue.....rich

[jrod]

If California were to get another tropical cyclone someday I bet the media would blame it on global warming. Even though history says it is possible even if would take a wicked El Nino for the SSTs to be warm enough to support a tropical cyclone.

[Jim Hughes]

seeming contradiction, huh...EDR. i am of the ilk that a significant calif landfalling trop system would be dependent on the presence of a very sharp off shore of scal and the baja...sort of analogous to the setup that produces the major new england landfalls. the maintenance of trop storm/hurricane strength over the less than marginal ssts offshore scal would require acceleration to greater than 30kts prior to landfall. in addition it would likely require an initially very intense cylone...cat 4/5 southsouthwest of the cabos...which, in turn, would be more likely(late sept/early oct) during a significant el nino year. obviously, this combination of circumstances is very rare, much rarer, IMO, than the new england analogue.....rich

You may be right and it could be post El Nino. Like I mentioned I did not have the data in front of me. I use to closely monitor earthquake activity.. possibly associated with strong ENSO/SOI phases....

I believe I have the name right ...Daniel Walker..Univ of Hawaii wrote about and researched similar subject in the 1980's with El Nino .. Pacific Rim area...earthquakes ...subsurface volcanic activity ....anyway the Fort Tejon , California quake was big, M=7.9 , and it was in January 1857... maybe that confused me. That may have been the El Nino time. (1856-57)

Not as absurd as you might think...I talked about this in TWC forum back in March of this year, , as well as in some e-mail discussions to many people while we were seeing the highest negative SOI values seen since 1997. (30 & 90 day averages)

I spoke about the 60 lag day window...Used mid March as example when I probably should have used time when it dramatically changed and bottomed out towards positive 30 day trend...slightly later...Well earthquake activity increased out west as everyone knows. There was definitely an increase in June...Always on the news you could not have missed it.

I am unsure if you know where the Long Valley Caldera is.... Mammoth Lakes California.. They have plenty of tree kill in the area and it can be dangerous to be in an closed area in an around the area without proper ventilation...Co2 I believe...Home page even says it is related to air pressure changes....weather changes... Caldera inflation rate (Means it is rising/swelling) increased considerably in March 97'...most in decade...El Nino born March 97....Swelling ceases around June 98'.... La Nina born ....Stays almost even until early 2002 and then it starts inflating more ...El Nino born March 2002 .....see a pattern ?

The earthquake activity level in November 97' was the highest since 1989 ....It became extremely active exactly at the EXACT same time that the strongest solar flare in years occurred.

Chief geologist David Hill came extremely close to putting the region under code Yellow around November 21st time frame. This had only occurred at Mount St Helens in 1980....until recently...

I sent out an earthquake prediction to local local Washington DC TV stations...newspapers etc...in OCTOBER 1997 saying that a magnitude > 4.5 was going to occur within 45 days within 15 miles of the caldera....It did .... 3-4 of them occurred and several thousand smaller events...

Mount St Helens was effected also in the summer of 1998 ...La Nina born....The > M 3.0 forecast that I made did not occur but the volcano recorded it's highest activity level since 1987 in May-July 1998...It paled to the recent level but it did see a rise....

Things are interconnected....ionosphere...many changes in readings both prior and after large earthquakes...Ever heard of the VAN method ? Greek researchers ...electrical impulses.... they monitor....

If ionosphere is related to weather changes... the mild side effects of electrical changes ....may influence certain regions depending upon conductivity of rock etc...

The conductivity of Volcanic areas is high compared to other areas in USA ....Had an old map put out by Electric Company showing this.......geomagnetic activity research related....Surges blow out power grids ...March 1989 Canada power grid........ Severe geomagnetic storm... Map showed West Coast USA all shaded in compared to other areas...

[EDR1222]

seeming contradiction, huh...EDR. i am of the ilk that a significant calif landfalling trop system would be dependent on the presence of a very sharp off shore of scal and the baja...sort of analogous to the setup that produces the major new england landfalls. the maintenance of trop storm/hurricane strength over the less than marginal ssts offshore scal would require acceleration to greater than 30kts prior to landfall. in addition it would likely require an initially very intense cylone...cat 4/5 southsouthwest of the cabos...which, in turn, would be more likely(late sept/early oct) during a significant el nino year. obviously, this combination of circumstances is very rare, much rarer, IMO, than the new england analogue.....rich

Good points. I guess like you say, maybe if everything came together perfectly, it is possible. A very strong very fast moving storm.

I believe it was 1997 that had the strong El-Nino. Please correct me if I am wrong. But I remember seeing a story on the news about how the El-Nino had warmed the water temperatures off Southern California and all the fishermen in the area were catching fish species that they normally didn't catch. But even then I think the water still only got to around 70 degrees F. Does anyone else remember this?

[Aslkahuna]

The water temperatures off SoCA were in the 70's to be sure in 1997-98. The big storm in 1997 was Linda which for a while looked like it was going to head towards CA. We actually had Nora which tracked in near Yuma as a Tropical Storm (60 mph gusts) that year. Jim Cantore was on scene for TWC and it was amusing to see him in the middle of the AZ desert reporting on a Tropical Storm (though they aren't all that rare here in AZ).

Steve