Wow, San Diego Hurricane!

[Hurricanehink]

January 16, 2005
San Diego Hit by Hurricane in 1858
Researchers have confirmed that a powerful storm that struck San Diego, California on October 2, 1858 was indeed a Category 1 hurricane.

More Links:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/ch ... andsea.pdf
http://geography.about.com/b/a/139633.htm
http://ams.confex.com/ams/Annual2005/te ... _86335.htm
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/fstories/fs11jan2005b.php

That is very surprising. We can no longer say California has never been hit by a hurricane.

[cycloneye]

Umm very interesting information.

[HURAKAN]

I'm just in a "shock mood" right now. I had though about many other possible disaster but not a hurricane impacting California, that was just impossible.

[Mezocyclone]

Juss goes ta show ya, the right time, the right place, the right conditions and WHAMO Much like the possibility of 4 hurricanes coming onshore in Florida within a 6 week time period, 5 if you count Bonnie, which was minimal..

[Aslkahuna]

It also means that we can no longer say that EPAC hurricanes have never affected the US as such-important to note, 1858 was 8 years after CA was admitted to the Union so it was a bona fide US hit by an EPAC hurricane.

Steve

[Mezocyclone]

Very True,, SC has joined the Hurricane Club Here's a site that is a little off topic but neat for history buffs...
http://online.ohlone.cc.ca.us/english/e ... dRush.html

[george_r_1961]

I'm just in a "shock mood" right now. I had though about many other possible disaster but not a hurricane impacting California, that was just impossible.

i feel the same way Sandy. Hurricanes are supposed to hit the Gulf Coast and the eastern seabord..not California. Or so we thought

[Derek Ortt]

if you get the right type of trough, it is possible that a storm can survive due to QG forcing, much like storms are able to remain as hurricanes up to Newfoundland.

This would be most likely in late September or October

[MWatkins]

Juss goes ta show ya, the right time, the right place, the right conditions and WHAMO Much like the possibility of 4 hurricanes coming onshore in Florida within a 6 week time period, 5 if you count Bonnie, which was minimal..

Yep..we had Dr Landsea on our little radio show last fall...we talked some about the San Diego hurricane specifically...one of the things that Dr Landsea pointed out at the time is that the hurricane likely occured during a relatively warm ENSO (Nino) event when water temps were abnormally warm there in the east Pacific. If I can dig up the audio I'll try to run it into a file and post a link for it.

MW

[MGC]

This SD hurricane is a direct result of human induced global warming. Really though, this is just more evidence that disputes human enduced global warming. I guess more hurricanes should effect Southern California real soon.......MGC

[george_r_1961]

This SD hurricane is a direct result of human induced global warming. Really though, this is just more evidence that disputes human enduced global warming. I guess more hurricanes should effect Southern California real soon.......MGC

[HurricaneBill]

I love the people who say the 4 Florida hurricanes are signs of global warming.

Um......what was the cause of the 4 Texas hurricanes in 1886?
A bumper sticker saying "S--- Happens"?

[weatherlover427]

This SD hurricane is a direct result of human induced global warming. Really though, this is just more evidence that disputes human enduced global warming. I guess more hurricanes should effect Southern California real soon.......MGC

Human induced global warming? In 1858??!!

I don't think so. Maybe now, but come on ... 1858 was a long time ago...heck, hardly anyone was out here in California in 1858.

[Mezocyclone]

Ok, Here We Go, Who in the Sam Hill Brought up Global Warming?

[Mezocyclone]

This SD hurricane is a direct result of human induced global warming. Really though, this is just more evidence that disputes human enduced global warming. I guess more hurricanes should effect Southern California real soon.......MGC

Human induced global warming? In 1858??!!

I don't think so. Maybe now, but come on ... 1858 was a long time ago...heck, hardly anyone was out here in California in 1858.

Perhaps you didn't read the entire post there "21",

Really though, this is just more evidence that disputes human enduced global warming.

That might help your insight,,,

[weatherwindow]

after digesting the article...a few thoughts. despite the strongest forseeable el nino episode, the ssts north-northwest of the southern baja will not approach levels which can sustain a steady state storm. the writer was suggesting a scenario which requires 75deg sst along the coast from the southern baja north to scal...and a relatively rapid transition to the north to avoid rapid weakening over the marginal ssts. the best candidate for a cat 2/3 landfall in scal would be a cat 4/5 moving on a nearshore nw to nnw course south of the cabos/gulf of california. nearing the baja, the storm approaches an anamalously sharp, semi-stationary offshore trough. analogous to the synoptic setup associated with the famous long island express of 1938, this trough would induce a turn from nw to n and subsequently a rapid acceleration to 30-40kts. as in the east coast example, this rapid acceleration would allow the storm to spend the minimum time over sub-par ssts and thus retain intensity. obviously, such a synoptic coincidence is so rare as to be statistically insigificant. however, many suitable candidates(relatively nearshore cat4/5 moving nw to nnw) have developed over the years. it is reasonable to assume that eventually the storm will meet the steering.....if brazil, then why not scal.........rich

[weatherwindow]

referring to above reply....can anyone suggest a reason for the absence of the synoptic setup that i mentioned? ......it appears to me that far fewer of these anamalous troughs approach the west coast during sept and oct than approach the east coast during the same period. is this my imagination?.............rich

[Aslkahuna]

Troughs don't generally dig down into the West until they get a bit inland. In fact more EPAC storms are more likely to recurve into AZ and NM than CA. You need a negative tilt trough or perhaps a closed ULL offshore coupled with a wedge of warm water off the Baja coast. My guess is that we are looking at a track similar to the 1939 storm which made it into the LAX area as a TS. The one tracked NW just off the Baja coast before hooking inland. The problem is that you can not track a storm north anywhere along that coast since if you do it will immediately run into land as the coast all along Baja trends NW with Los Cabos almost due south of Sierra Vista (longitude 110W). Although we often speculate about what would happen if a storm tracked straight up the middle of the Sea of Cortez into western AZ, the truth of the matter is that most of the storms that have made it into AZ as Tropical Storms have actually tracked up off of Baja and then accelerated ahead of a trough into AZ which allowed them to retain some energy. The only recent TS into AZ that went up the Sea of Cortez was Nora in 1997. Reason being that the SOC is narrow and the storms are interacting with some rugged terain.

Steve