San Diego Hurricane

San Diego Hurricane

With a rare earthquake hitting the nation's capital, and then a rare hurricane heading up the East Coast to New York City, I wondered if San Diego had ever been hit by a hurricane. The reason I wondered is because we do have some remnants of Pacific Ocean cyclones make their way through San Diego occasionally, usually as rain storms.

During the 20th Century, there were four tropical storms with tropical storm winds that affected the southwestern United States:

1. September 25, 1939, in California
2. October 6, 1972, in Arizona — Hurricane Joanne, at that time downgraded to a tropical storm
3. September 10, 1976, in California and Arizona — Hurricane Kathleen, downgraded to a tropical storm
4. September 26, 1997, in California and Arizona — Hurricane Nora (picture at right), downgraded to a tropical storm

In November 2004, the Journal of the American Meteoroligical Society published a paper by Michael Chenoweth and Christopher Landsea (what an appropriate last name) titled The San Diego Hurricane of 2 October 1858. Chenoweth and Landsea were with the NOAA/AOML/Hurricane Research Division in Miami, Florida. Their work brought the San Diego Hurricane to the modern public's attention for the first time.

Chenoweth discovered the existence of the San Diego Hurricane which hit the area from San Diego to Long Beach on October 2, 1858, by researching historical records, including:

1. Microfilm copies of daily weather observations made by medical staff at U.S. Army outposts,
2. Microfilm copies of California newspapers — Daily Alta California (San Francisco) and Los Angeles Star
3. Original U.S. Coast Survey notebooks

U.S. Army and U.S. Coast Survey records are held at the U.S. National Archives in College Park, Maryland. California newspaper records are in the Library of Congress Newspaper Library. The Daily Alta California included press items from other newspapers, including the San Diego Herald, the Los Angeles Vineyard, and the Santa Barbara Gazette.

California had been a state for only eight years, and San Diego was a small outpost of about 700 people. Today is has a population of 1.3 million, making it the nation's eighth largest city.

Prior to their paper, there were no known tropical cyclones that made landfall in the Southwest United States as hurricanes. The San Diego Hurricane did not make landfall in California, but instead skirted up the coast just off shore, similar to what Hurricane Irene did this weekend to much of the East Coast. Weather conditions recorded at New San Diego fort on October 2, 1858, showed a barometric reading of 29.50 and winds of Force 8, i.e., 75 mph.

Damage from the San Diego Hurricane:

• Some houses lost their roofs while others were simply blown down; trees were uprooted and fences destroyed. In one report, "Roofs of houses, trees, fences, &c., &c., filled the air in all directions."
• The schooner Plutus was blown ashore, dragging her anchor behind her, and the schooler Lovely Flora followed suit.
• The schooner X.L., which was being repaired at the time, was "blown over and somewhat injured." My visual is not working on having a ship "somewhat injured."
• "Streets, alleys, and roads ... were swept as clean as if a thousand brooms had been laboriously employed for months."

Mother and Father Nature control the Earth, and they will do whatever they want, when and where they want! 

♪♫ ♫♪

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