1858 San Diego hurricane

Infobox Hurricane
Name=1858 San Diego Hurricane
Type=hurricane
Year=1858
Basin=Pcl
Formed=September 1858
Dissipated=October 2, 1858
1-min winds=75
Pressure=994 mbarcite journal |last=Chenoweth |first=Michael |authorlink= |coauthors=Landsea, Christopher |year=2004 |month= |title=The San Diego Hurricane of 2 October 1858 |journal=Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society |volume=85 |issue=11 |pages=1689–1697 |doi=10.1175/BAMS-85-11-1689 |url=http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/chenowethlandsea.pdf |accessdate= |quote= ]
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Fatalities=Unknown
Areas=Extreme Southern California, northwestern Mexico
Hurricane season=pre-1900 Pacific hurricane seasonsThe 1858 San Diego Hurricane was a very rare California hurricane. It is the only known tropical cyclone to impact California as a hurricane, although other systems impacted California as tropical storms.

Meteorological history

Sometime in September, a hurricane formed in the East Pacific Ocean. Unlike most east Pacific storms, this one moved towards the north. On October 2, it neared Southern California while weakening and being sheared. It just missed making landfall, as it turned to the northwest. It approached Santa Catalina Island in the Channel Islands and dissipated. There is some uncertainty to this reconstructed path.

Impact

In San Diego, the rain was very heavy, and the property damage was great, many homes lost their roofs, while a few homes even collapsed. In addition, trees were uprooted, and fences destroyed. A recently constructed windmill was also blown away completely. Three schooners, the "Plutus", the "Lovely Flora", and the "X.L." were blown ashore, though only the "X.L." suffered major damage.

Rainfall in San Pedro was also heavy, but high winds were not reported. Parts of the embankment in the city were washed away, causing only around $100 ($Inflation|US|100|1858|r=2 today) in damage. [http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ The Inflation Calculator ] ] The yacht, "Medora", was washed ashore. Many reports claimed that the yacht was irreparable, but it was later claimed that the damage wasn't actually that great and could be repaired. A barge was destroyed, as was a large portion of the San Pedro wharf.

El Monte was buffeted by high winds, damaging corn crops and trees. Los Angeles and Visalia noted large amounts of rain, as much as convert|7|in|mm|abbr=off|lk=on, but low winds.

In an estimate by Michael Chenoweth and Christopher Landsea, if the storm would hit today, it would cause around $500 million in damage.http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/presentations/ams-sandiego.ppt#14]

Rediscovery

Using newspaper accounts, two researchers with NOAA, Christopher Landsea and Michael Chenoweth, reconstructed this hurricane. Its strong winds were mentioned in the folklore of the region.

ee also

* List of Pacific hurricanes
* List of California hurricanes

References